Better Living Through Graphic Storytelling

2008-07-09T02:11:00.001-05:00

2008-02-19T09:35:00.001-05:00

This is of particular interest to me since I'm a huge fan of EC Comics and Gaine's publishing work, as well as a long-time Mad fan. Keep in mind, as "right on" as Gaines is portrayed as, this is essentially after he "stole" the magazine from Harvey Kurtzman, in the 1950s. Still, Gaines' reign over the magazine did successfully last quite some time.

2008-02-07T09:28:00.001-05:00

2008-01-18T19:10:00.001-05:00

Fell #9

Fell is not dead. It's just been traveling the world, and promoting vampire movies. Or maybe it's been sitting in England...NOT WRITING. Regardless, delays in books like Fell don't really matter because it's always worth the wait. This issue was like a kick to the chest.

GO READ IT.

Quick Note...

2008-01-18T19:07:00.001-05:00

I really really really liked Spiderman being married.
But I like Dan Slott more...
BECAUSE HE'S A REAL PERSON.

2008-01-04T11:00:00.001-05:00

2007-12-13T09:36:00.001-05:00

Is it me, or did anyone else who saw this picture think, at first glance, that that was Brian K. Vaughn?

Crecy

2007-08-25T18:20:00.001-05:00

In England, the word cunt is punctuation.

The other day I had gone back and re-read a few stories from Warren Ellis' brief run on Hellblazer, which was really quite good. Ellis is one of those creators that I trust, but only as far as I can throw him. When he hits the mark, he hits it hard. But unfortunately, he often misses the mark too. Ellis is an "idea man", and while I think that this is something sorely lacking in most modern comics, it can also hold a good writer back.

All of this occurred to me while I was reading Hellblazer because, frankly, it's really fucking good. Ellis' famed smarminess (see Warren Ellis (dot) Com for examples) has been a useful tool over the years, but too often it is apparent that most of his protagonists at this point are little more than Spider Jerusalem derivatives, who himself was admittedly a Hunter S. Thompson derivative. All of this nut-kicking, chain-smoking, and swearing is quite charming in the beginning, but it begins to wear itself pretty thin after a while. Especially when considering that Transmetropolitan is 10 years old now.

The reason I frame this in the context of Ellis' Hellblazer run is because Ellis is just that much more convincing when he's writing British characters. Looking back on series like Desolation Jones reaffirm this suspicion.

Crecy, Warren Ellis' new graphic-novella released by Avatar Press as part of his Apparat Line, is another perfect example of why Warren Ellis should not be writing Thunderbolts and should be writing Wisdom instead. Crecy is a surprisingly economic piece of work about the Battle of Crecy, from the British point of view.

There's a reason why Hugh Grant movies sell in America. Warren Ellis' omniscient narrator is a perfect example of how the British could be verbally abusing you to your face, and you'd still walk away from the conversation having been charmed. Take out the racism, the perpetual class-warfare, the hatred of everything not English, the constant need to correct everyone who is not English that they are wrong and backwards, and you'd have a Summer Blockbuster on your hands right there.

Crecy doesn't read quite like a story, but it also doesn't quite read like the overt history lesson that it is. More than anything it reads like a lament and an admission of not only the things that the British got right, but also the ugly things that the British had to get wrong in order to survive. The combination of admitting your mistakes while also admitting that it is necessary to continue them is extremely powerful when handled by Ellis. These are the kinds of lofty experiments that make it worth buying as many Warren Ellis books as possible.

Crecy bodes well for not only Avatar, but for comics as well. With the release of both Doktor Sleepless and Black Summer, the Apparat line has shown that it is not only alive and well, but more than willing to kick in your nuts.

Gay as in...

2007-08-24T07:57:00.001-05:00

Michael Davis, over at Comicmix, has the answers to the comic industries problems - Happy Heroes! (tm & (c) Michael Davis 2007):

*For the uninformed (Republicans) a 40 means a 40 ounce beverage in a glass bottle. In this case the beverage would be a beer, more specifically a malt liquor such as Colt 45. If by chance you are ever in the “hood” and you want to appear “down” or “cool” then by all means order a Colt 45 in the bag. That’s a plain brown paper bag. Do NOT order a Sam Adams or some such weak ass brew. That would most likely result in a beat down…yours.

Whatever happened to the good 'ol days of self-deprecating satire?

Text vs. Meta-Text

2007-08-15T11:46:00.001-05:00

Been a while. How have you been?

So... This and this have been making the rounds (please read the original blog entries). Not quite in a this kind of way, but enough to make me go "WTF, man?" this morning. Why did I go "WTF, man?"? Because this argument seems pointless to me. Why is it pointless?

Because both Ms. Superheroine and Ms. Hudson are completely right.

I think the issue that many people have with 'Angry Fangirls' on the blogosphere is that there is confusion as to what makes up the content of a comic book.

There's text...

...and then there's meta-text.

ou’re supposed to be disgusted with what happens to Barbara Gordon—and to Commissioner Gordon—because it’s disgusting. That is, in fact, the entire point. It was brutal and pointless and ugly and terrible, and that's why it hurts so much.

That's the text of Killing Joke.

It doesn't take the perspective of a woman into account. It doesn't take into account that some women might be so very disgusted with the book & what happens to Barbara Gordon in it.

That's the meta-text of Killing Joke.

You can review the text of a work. You can't really do that wholly with the meta-text, however, you can certainlyevaluate a work based on its meta-text.

The Killing Joke has been mentioned by Alan Moore as one of his most disappointing works. He states that it is about "nothing". I may be wrong, but I also believe that he did not intend for that story to be necessarily in continuity, and certainly did not intend for this story to be an impetus for getting "rid of" Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. He just needed something that he, as a fan, felt disgusting and offensive enough to actually have been committed by a character like The Joker.

We can't forget the story. The story is the most important part. But we also can't forget that art is supposed to inspire people. Whether it inspires people to make works of art themselves or inspires them to become life-long fans of the character. Even if all it inspires in people is that they should not shoot women in the spine, a piece of art should inspire on any level. Should we be all-accepting and forgiving of the more annoying tendencies of our fanperson compatriots? Probably not, because then most of us comic book bloggers wouldn't have blogs anymore, but we also can't forget that things like this stem from love and appreciation.

Ms. Superheroine was disgusted by The Killing Joke. Not disgusted but inspired like Ms. Hudson, or myself at age 13. In my opinion, that is reason enough for someone to dislike a particular work of art, regardless of whether I share that reaction or not.

The only thing that I would mention to Ms. Superheroine is that The Killing Joke was published in the late 80s (a very, very culturally dark time), before the pictoral abuse of women in comics was as rampant as it is today. This is before "Women in Refrigerators". This is before Stephanie Brown was senselessly and unfairly killed. This was before Brad Meltzer ran off copies of his first novel at Kinkos.

Given its historical context, I would say that Mr. Moore's decision to depict Barbara Gordon being shot might be inspiring. A lot of terrible abuses were happening to Women all over the world in 1988. This is still fairly fresh off the Women's Liberation movement, when we had thought that if we tried hard enough we could eradicate sexism, only to see it all come crashing down with the rise of Heroine Chic and the Crack Epidemic. However, in comics, no one was talking about these things. When Jim Gordon is forced to watch footage of his daughter being abused by the Joker, we're right there with him, because we love Barbara too.

However, given the present day context of Mike Turner variant covers and the legal name change of Dr. Light to Dr. RapeityRapeRape-Rape, yeah, it's uninspired and irritating.

Whoziwhatnow?

2007-08-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

Seriously, the next person who claims that it was illegal downloading that "killed" the music industry....

Argh.

You know what? You're entitled to your opinion. If your opinion is that the Music Industry as we knew it could have survived, had the onslaught of P2P sharing networks, such as Gnutella and Slsk not become ubiquitous, then so be it. I've made very clear in the past my advocacy of downloading media (illegally or otherwise), and how I honestly believe that it makes people more responsible and conscientious consumers. It allows us to make informed decisions about what we pay for.

Maybe I should have mentioned something though...

I'm a musician. My father's a musician. My roommate's a musician. Most of the people I was around, growing up as a kid, were musicians, both professional and otherwise. Some of these people work for small record companies as their day jobs. Now that they all have iPods, they all download music. Before the internet, they used to tape music, either off the radio, or from records borrowed from friends or the local library. We're musicians and we steal. Fuck you.

I mean, even if one were to blame Napster for the death of the music industry (looking at you Lars Ulrich), did we really want the music industry as we knew it to survive? Be completely honest with yourselves now.

Illegal downloads f**ked the music industry seriously, and while I'm all for sticking it to the "man," it all does end up negatively impacting the artists and their art -- ESPECIALLY SMALLER "NICHE" MUSICIANS!

I would say that music industry executives, and the framework of the industry is what really f**ked musicians and artists, long long long before the internet was around. Don't believe me? I know some dudes in Plainfield that worked as studio musicians on some historically important records and never saw a lick of the album profits. That's not because they were screwed over by anyone with any specific malice towards them. That's because working studio musicians only get paid a one-time fee. Even if you provide an improvised excerpt in a song (i.e. solo), which many musicians like to refer to as "spontaneous composition", you get a one time fee. No publishing rights, nothing. Why? Because that is the going contract for studio musicians. That is the way in which the Music Industry was designed at its very inception.

I mean, you want to talk artists' royalties, the situation is not much better. We're talking a couple cents per unit, and that's after the label has recovered expenses (i.e. shipping, packaging, production, any sort of advance, touring costs, etc.). A couple cents per unit. The average CD costs less than a dollar to manufacture. The cost of an individual album, including shipping, production, artwork, packaging, is somewhere between $3 - $4. It might be even less at this point. Meanwhile, music consumers are being charged anywhere between $11 - $18 on average. That's about $10 more than the CD cost to make. That's a $10 profit per unit, and the artist is getting paid a couple cents per unit. This was the case well before Napster, and last time I walked into a record store, it was the case several years after Napster.

The music industry does not respect you. The music industry does not respect it's "talent". All the music industry has done, since its inception, is convince you, the consumer, that there was a need for a middle-man.

Before The Music Dies is a fairly decent documentary which investigates this issue further, by interviewing music fans, studio technicians, professional songwriters, musicians, and former A&R reps. The nicest thing about this documentary is that they are selling both DVDs and DRM-free, downloadable digital copies of the movie (both at compressed and DVD quality) via their website. No middle-man. If your curious about this issue, and how it relates to music fans and musicians, check out the site.

Now, in relation to the BoingBoing.net post, I don't really think that the issue is whether or not illegal downloading is right or wrong. The real issue is that the RIAA does not want you downloading music, period, and that this is another piece of propaganda to add to the pile. It just so happens to feature a comic book character. That has always been BoingBoing's stance. Sure, pay the artists for their work, but don't let the record company tell you how to use your music (i.e. Digital Rights Management). Intellectual property is a very slippery slope of an issue, but property formal is less so. If you pay for a record, whether it be the physical record or a digital copy, the record company should not be able to prevent you from sharing it with your friends, burning multiple copies for whatever reason, or play these files on another machine.

Let's put this in terms of another media industry. Let's say you bought the Civil War tradepaperback. Your buddy comes over, sees you have the book. He's interested in buying the X-men tie-in trade, because he's a big X-men fan who happens to be one of those wait-for-the-trade guys, but he hadn't read the main story yet. He's a bit of a tightwad when it comes to his cash. So you offer to lend it to him. Now imagine that the minute the book exchanges hands, Joe Quesada pops up out of nowhere, snatches up the book and says to your buddy, "You didn't pay for this! You don't get to read it!" That's DRM in a nut-shell.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but most comics pros are currently advocating that you lend out your comics. They're telling you that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool. It's the one thing that could get non-comic book readers to read comics again, and hopefully save the industry. I don't think that BoingBoing is anti-artist by any means. I don't even think they're anti-paying for your art. I'm pretty sure what they are against is rich white men telling you how, and under what circumstances you are allowed to enjoy the art which you have already over-paid for.

Again, there are lots of resources out there on this issue, and how it pertains to any number of mediums. Go read some of this stuff and decide for yourself. As for me, I've made very clear that I download illegally in order to be a more concientious and responsible consumer. I'm downloading in order to make an informed vote with my money. This way, I am doing my personal best to ensure that the material I want to see on the shelves every week will be there next month, and that the crap I have no interest in is not. I'm trying to personally ensure that the comics industry is putting out what I personally think are good, intelligently made comics, in a language that they actually listen to. Money.

Except when it comes to the music industry. I am clearly out to fuck them. Hard. Because every day they are trying to fuck my friends and family even harder, and that doesn't sit right with me.

UPDATE Wow. Just read those opening paragraphs. I'm a dick, aren't I?

In the comments section of Occasional Superheroine Ms. Superheroine talks about the comics industry adopting a download platform for authorized digital comics (e.g. iTunes store for comics). I agree, wholeheartedly. My only issue is that DC & Marvel will probably be strong advocates of using DRM to ensure that these comics are not shareable, and I've mentioned above my feelings on DRM, and how I think that that would contradict previous statements made by professionals. The only reason this concerns me, is because there's only a small handful of books coming out from those publishers that I want to pay money for, but they have enough clout to set the standard for all the other publishers.

Ms. Superheroine makes an excellent point (again in the comments section) when she points out what really killed the music industry was not so much the emergence of downloading technology, but rather going up against the downloading technology. She believes that working with emerging technologies might help keep the mainstream comics industry afloat. I think that the heads at the big 2, as well as publishers like Image and Dark Horse are pretty well aware of this, and are at least trying to work with the future instead of fighting it. Hell, Avatar is putting out that web-exclusive Warren Ellis project.

Does anyone but me remember Marvel's short-lived, Flash heavy Dot-Comics? They used to feature a lot of classic books (I can't tell you how many times I've read Amazing Fantasy #15 at this point in my life) as well as the two main Ultimate titles. It was pretty sweet, and it's sort of how I got back into super hero comics when I was in college. I thought that that was a format that worked well, because you had to actually read the comic on Marvel's website, but you could share the link with you pals or whatever. Sure it's not portable, and the initial load time could be slow, but it was well worth it for me. And I suspect it was worth it for Marvel, because I've been reading and buying Ultimate Spiderman as a direct result.

weekly reads.

2007-07-06T14:19:00.000-05:00

so, tonio asked me to write about this week's reads. so, here you go.

Thor #1
I like it. I like the return of Donald Blake. I like the reverence to the past and, admittedly based on interviews with J. Michael Strkfdsfjkahkfaf, I think the direction he's going will be interesting without fucking up what came before. Clever things abound in an issue without much going on. Self contained, while still leading into issue #2. All in all, a good #1.

Black Canary #1
Surprisingly tight comic. I mean, I knew all the back story, so I can't quite tell if people not informed would be able to follow the references, but I enjoyed it. Little more than that though.

All-Star Superman #8
I'm not one of those guys who was blown away by this series. I mean, it's good comics, but I wasn't hooting and hollering after reading it. But the Jimmy Olsen issue really worked me up because of it's glut of craziness, and so I expected Bizarroworld to do the same, but, eh, there are good moment, but, mostly, it was pretty good. I'm sure when I read the trade I'll get more excited.

Mutant X
So, i found all the back issues of Mutant X so I'm reading them. I think I picked up an issue of this when it came out, #2 or 3 maybe, and i remember kind of liking it. And you know what? I do. It's not making me think differently about anything. And it's no world changer, but it is fun comics. The characters are somehow immediately likable because they are so intensely flawed. Also, while most books seem to need to know where they're going, there's something about the forward pace of this book without looking forward at all that appeals to me. It's definitely written for the issues.
The only complaint about this book, even the weird major shift at the one year mark that seems rushed is okay by me, is that each issue is starts in medias res and then flashes back. I hate that everywhere and here it's in every issue.
Here's the thing though, I don't know if I'd suggest this book to anyone. I like it, but I think I'm just a sucker for alternate worlds. Love em. Always have. They are the place where all logic dies and comics logic begins. LOVE EM. Gimme more alternate worlds!

Haven't read anything else yet. Will update if I do.

Someone Else Has Probably Already Posted This

2007-07-03T10:26:00.001-05:00

But I don't care. It's still sort of awesome.

news

2007-07-03T09:32:00.000-05:00

According to Beaucoup Kevin Marvel is in talks with Michael Agrusso (responsible for the possibly over exposed Mac/PC ad parodies which pit a Marvel action figures against a DC action figures) to produce similar videos for the Marvel website. It begs two questions:

1. Who would win in an ad? Plastic Thor, or plastic Supmerman?

2. Is overtly insulting a fellow publisher really ok?

Sure stuff like this is great for fans to produce, but have we gone back to the days when Marvel & DC dedicate letters columns to subtely dissing "the competition"?

Then I came across this picture:

All I heard in my head was "Hello. I'm a Gertrude Stein," and I thought that was funny.

In "real" news, Dean Haspiel & Michael Fiffe are bringing Immortal and Panorama to print in October. Image Comics will be printing both strips (which debuted on Act-I-Vate) in a single book simply named Brawl.

Also, Paul Gravett (hearts) Krazy Kat

Oh, and there was this:

really good idea.

2007-07-02T02:25:00.000-05:00

Tonio told me i had to post about this and a mouse just showed up crawling on my bed so i got really stoned and here you go, marvel and dc, take it or leave it:

The gray Hulk (Mr. Fixit), the extra-mutated Thing (the pineapple one), Kilowog, and Strong Guy all move into an apartment together to be able to afford a place that can accommodate their over-sized frames.

The only fighting that will happen in this book is bickering turned into wrestling between the main characters. We get to learn interesting things about each of them as they're forced to interact with each other constantly. Did you know Strong Guy receives medicinal marijuana for his constant upper body pain? How about that Kilowog's a total bookworm and it's totally gross when he brushes those weird things on his face?

Enjoy watching the lives of these four characters, giant in both size and heart.

I can't stop thinking of scenes where Kilowog and Strong Guy get stoned watching tv. Or where Grey Hulk and the Thing get drunk playing poker. But also surprisingly serious late night conversations like I've often had with room mates. What would mafia enforcer Mr. Fixit talk to genetic scientist Kilowog about at four in the morning? Also, I'm pretty sure every character in this book smokes cigars. Though, now that I think of it, maybe Strong Guy doesn't.

If the world is lucky, I will come up with a pitch for the first year of the book.

Right. There you go, Tonio, now I look the fool.

holy motherfuck.

2007-06-30T06:06:00.000-05:00

this is probably my favorite image ever. i stole it directly from here.

P.I.R.A.T.E.S.

2007-06-28T09:16:00.001-05:00

So without any new solicitations to view, comic book piracy has become the new hot issue on the web right now.

That is not to say that this is not an issue worth discussing, and I'm really really glad to see everyone from comic creators to fans to unabashed comic pirates chiming in and explaining their positions in a seemingly civil manner.

I am a life long comic fan. I still go to the store every Wednesday and spend approximately $20 a week on brand new floppy comics. That amount does not include the price of trades, collections, or graphic novels. You may even say that I, like many of my fellow fans, am addicted to reading comics.

Unfortunately my budget is smaller than I would like it to be. My salary is paltry. My rent is high. The cost of living in New York City is consistently rising at astronomical rates.

Did I mention that my weekly comics budget 6 months ago was $30 a week? And that 6 months before that it was $40 a week? That was not always the average amount I spent per week, but it was my maximum price range.

In the past two years we have seen the price tag of the average mainstream floppy rise from $2.50 to $2.99 per book. That bump may not seem significant, but as most fans will point out, we are essentially getting 22 pages of a 5 - 7 issue story. That's a minimum $15 minimum per story. That's approximately $15 for 110 pages of story.

Now, I'm not saying that the $2.99 price tag is not justified, and as grateful as I am for better coloring technology and better quality printing, $15 per story is still a lot, considering that the average Dean Koontz paperback, which is probably closer to around 200 pages of story, costs about $10, and it takes me about 30 - 40 minutes to digest the average trade paperback.

Maybe I should curb my habit (more than I already have). Maybe I should do that thing where I don't read floppies anymore and simply wait for the trade. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite books are not guaranteed release in a collected format. They need to sell enough floppies in order to do that.

What downloading comics allows me to do is be a more conscientious comics consumer.

I was first introduced to Alan Moore's Promethea series via a collection of cbr files that my buddy past along to me. Now I own all of the trades, as well as several others in Moore's ABC line.

I shelled out a $100 as part of DC's special 52 subscription plan. I didn't get all of my issues, the ones I did get were all at least 2 weeks late (2 weeks, after the 1 week delay we were told about in advance), and some of them showed up in my mailbox fucked up. I wouldn't have minded if I had enjoyed the series more, but I didn't. It was a waste of $100. That's a $100 I could have spent on rent or bills or food.

I was a fan of Ultimate Spiderman in the very beginning of the series. For one reason or another I stopped reading it regularly. A few years back I got back into it. How? Reading the trades for free in THE LIBRARY. What story lines my local library didn't carry, I caught up with by downloading the torrents. I have been buying the floppies every month since then.

I have a friend who makes his living primarily as an artist. That means money is infrequent and irregular most of the time. He's also a huge comic fan. When he does come across money he immediately spends it on comics. When he doesn't have money (and I mean, doesn't even have enough for food or clothing) he downloads his books, and buys the hard copies when he gets paid. As an artist who makes his life selling his art, he surely recognizes the necessity of comic creators being paid fairly for their hard work. He simply can't afford to support artists on a regular basis on the terms of the current market.

This is not everyone. There are quite a few people who have no shame in downloading or uploading comics on a regular basis, with absolutely no intention of ever paying for one. But as a few people have rightly pointed out, that is not really taking money away from creators as much as never offering it. I suppose it is the difference between being mugged at gunpoint, and being pick-pocketed.

I have no qualms about downloading comics regularly, simply because I still do give my money to the books that I think need it or deserve it. I'm not willing to sacrifice my own lifestyle in order to ensure the lifestyle of everyone else in the comics industry, but I am willing to compromise my lifestyle a bit in order to ensure the lifestyle of a handful of creators and publishers that I think merit my support, in exchange for 22 pages of culture. If you personally enjoy reading Countdown or World War Hulk: Frontline, please buy it. Please support those books. But if you are not, don't. Please. That is worse than stealing it in my opinion, because that just means that books you don't enjoy will be stealing shelf-space and potential budgeting for books that you do or will enjoy. This is a scheme that the Big 2 are banking on, because it is easier to sell crappy stories with existing properties than it is to conceptualize new ones with good stories.

I would also like to point out that maybe 40% (that's a really rough guess) of the comic torrents making the rounds out there is material currently unavailable. Like the underground Wimmen's Comix collection or a lot of scantilated manga & BD (which does often make it's ways into the hands of US publishers). So, as a note to publishers, don't just look at torrent stats as a way of determining who is stealing money from you. Also look at it as a way of determining what sorts of stories, or what sorts of old material there is a demand for that is not being met by the current market.

The last thing I will say is that going to the store and paying $20 for a collected edition of any comic series is far more convenient than configuring your computer and your router to run some of the better, and therefore more popular, bittorrent clients. The fact that so many people are willing to take the more frustrating route says something.

Our Thoughts Are With You, Mr. Gerber

2007-06-26T11:46:00.001-05:00

Legendary comic writer Gerber, has announced that he is sick. At this point, he has already received aid from the HERO Initiative. If you are able to, please donate to them.

I would just like to point out that Gerber may not be as well known beyond his creation of Howard the Duck, but let me assure you that the man knows his craft and has written some damn fine material. I refer you to his interview The Comics Journal which can be found in their The Comic Journal Library: The Writers(Buy this book fast. You may have heard they're being sued over it.)

Saturday Doctor Who

2007-06-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't know, the MoCCA Art Festival is going on right now here in NYC. I'd really like to go, but for reasons I leave unspecified, I doubt I'll be able to. Also, Subway Cinema is holding this year's Asian Film Festival which includes the New York premiere of I'm A Cyborg But That's OK. Again, we'll see if I can make it.

In any event, the third Season of the Doctor Who revival continues it's three-part finale tonight. For all of you DW fans eagerly anticipating tonight's episode, here's something to tide you over:

I'll try to continue posting images like this each Saturday, in attempt to ensure everyone's weekend goes well.

Oh The Irony...

2007-06-23T10:34:00.001-05:00

This from Tom Crippen's 2006 review of Civil War (from The Comics Journal #281):

The Marvel heroes are fighting each other in a very serious, no-fooling-around war, like a Shakespeare history play but with mutants and Nick Fury robots and everything else we're used to seeing. The effect is weird. We are supposed to feel the tragedy of Reed Richards' and Tony Stark's fatal flaws, but it takes a tremendous leap to believe they can have fatal faults. You have to believe that this time the editors won't snatch the ball away and there won't be a Reed clone or some secret mind control or a reality shift.

Skrulls, dude. Skrulls.

Sorry.

Crippen makes an excellent point in his involved description of the giant-sized funeral of Goliath - Civil War turned out to be fucking hilarious. I know everyone's pissed off at Marvel right now, but you have to admit that they have given us no shortage comedic material since the whole 'Cap must die for MySpace' thing.

I suppose that is Crippen's point. Super hero comics, by there very nature need to be fun, not 'realistic'. Of course, every piece of fiction must have the ability to resonate on a realistic or human level in order for readers to relate, but wasn't that sort of subtle awareness always what was so great about some of our favorite comics?

Ultimately things like this mean nothing. Next week, or the week after that, there will be some other ridiculous marketing ploy designed to shock us (or delight us) into buying more units. Some of us will comply. Some of us will not. This does not diminish our love of the medium. It only strengthens it, and makes it clear where we stand and what we are willing to put up with.

In spite of being point on about why we as comic fans should probably not make a big deal about the zombie Mary Jane cover, Steven Grant is incorrect about the story featuring a zombified Mary Jane in it. I love what they've done with the Out-of-Continuity Mary Jane comics, but that's not what irritates/upsets me about this cover. What is upsetting is that it's just another crass example of consumer capitalism desperately flailing its arms around in an attempt to survive. More than anything, the seriousness with which the most ardent fans and the publishers themselves take these stories, characters, and images, is pitiful.

I'm not saying that our beloved fictions are not important. What I'm saying is that they're too important to let it be bogged down by the same exact bullshit we have to deal with. So let's all be good grown-ups and let the play be play.

Let's have some fun...

..with Skrulls.

Flash #13

2007-06-20T12:03:00.001-05:00

This just went down at the comic store:

Mark: Captain America dies, you saps all pour in. The Flash dies, nobody cares.

Dude: That's because nobody cares about Barry Allen. We're talking Steve Rogers, here.

Me: Actually, it's Bart Allen.

Dude: Good. So the whole Allen line is dead. They'll just kill another one next year.

Other Dude: What about his brother, Larry?

Claire: Didn't he pitch for the Sox?

I don't care how many times I see it. I don't care if they release nothing but 13 issues of the Flash dying. I will fucking cry each time, man.

There are only two things I get super fanboyish about (some would dispute that):

The Flash
Doctor Who

Thank you, Mark Guggenheim, for giving us Bart Allen fans the ending we deserve. Without spoiling anything, if you are a fan of the Flash legacy, regardless of who is your personal favorite, the last three pages will kill you.

Kill you.

Like you were involved in a company-wide cross-over.

Kill you.

UPDATE/SPOILER ALERT:

They seriously killed off Bart to bring Wally back? The twist on this better be really fucking good. Better than just bringing back Barry Allen. Seriously. And we had to wade through all of that excrutiating JLA/JSA cross-over to get to this point? Although, having the Legion of Superheroes be the ones to bring back a Flash was good. We'll see.

Miller + Owen + Chandler = A Close Approximation of That Sin City Sequel You're Never Going to See

2007-06-20T08:52:00.001-05:00

Seriously, as much as I'd love another Clive Owen movie, is this really necessary?

Fastest Book Alive

2007-06-18T09:19:00.001-05:00

This weekend was Father's Day weekend, so I had more important things to do than sit on the internet, hitting the refresh button on my browser over & over again, in an attempt to get the news from Wizardworld.

It was only this morning that I heard the news, and all I have to say is...

FUCK YOU!

Seriously, fuck you, DC. Fuck you Bob Wayne & Dan Didio. Fuck. You. Mark. Waid.

This new Flash series was just starting to get good! You know how long I've waited to see Bart's moment in the sun? You know how long I've waited for this book to finally come out?

Since I was 13, motherfuckers! Since I was buying Impulse, another one of the few ongoing comics that I KEPT BUYING when no one else was. And when it was cancelled, what did I get?

I got Young Justice starring baby Lobo.

FUCK YOU DC.

Now as exciting as it is for fans to see Mark Waid helm the book again, I have to admit that it doesn't really do anything for me. Sure his run on The Flash was great, all those years ago, but isn't it somebody else's turn? Isn't it time we got over this very slim minority of internet assholes who just troll the message boards screaming "WE WANT BARRY BACK!!", even though these fuckers weren't even alive when Barry Allen was the Flash?

Fuck you! You took away Wally. Now you're taking away Bart? Have we loyal Flash fans done nothing for you DC? Have we not tried our damndest to ensure that whoever it is behind the red and gold, that The Flash remain one of the cornerstones of the DCU? Don't we fans of Bart Allen deserve something for sticking with The Flash, Impulse, Young Justice, and The Teen Titans?

The only thing that might make this news bearable for me, is that Waid is writing the new series, entitled All-Flash. "All-Flash"? What could they mean by that? Don't they mean "All-Star Flash"? Like the proposed All-Star series featuring Barry Allen? Or do they mean....

We'll see, Waid. We'll see, Didio. Let's see how long you can keep me faithful to this book when you're disappearing all my favorite characters in the DCU. We'll see if All-Flash can serve the same purpose as The Flash, as the only mainstream superhero DC book I continue to spend money on each month. We'll see...

UPDATE: Wow. I just re-read that post, and I only now realized how unnecessarily harsh that sounded. So I apologize guys. I love you Bob Wayne. I love you Dan Didio. And, I especially love you Mark Waid. If not for you, we wouldn't even have Bart. Just warning you guys, no matter what the internet says, there are some hardcore Flash fans out there (not Barry fans, not Wally fans, not even Bart fans; Flash fans). I've been reading the Flash since the days that I was able to buy my comics with saved-up pocket change. I lamented the end of Impulse. Be careful, Mr. Waid. I know you have a handle on the legacy and the characters, but sometimes wanting to go beyond that is what seperates a good comic from a great comic.

This Is Weird

2007-06-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

For anyone reading either of these blogs...

I used to have a personal blog entitled ResonTence. It was pretty stupid, but I got a bit of traffic due to my exorbitant amount comic book related posts. Good times. Good times.

Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, I no longer maintain that blog. That's essentially what I've created these two separate blogs for - one for discussing comics, and the other for discussing...well, mostly science fiction I guess, but in theory I get to discuss other things (like this, which might as well be science fiction, but it's not...)

What does any of this have to do with anything?

Well someone re-registered the blogger URL that I was using before, as well as the blog's title/name. All of this is pretty amusing to me since, as far as I know, it's a word I made up when I was drunk.

When you visit the URL in your browser, nothing pops up though (except that wretched pistachio background thing), but in my RSS reader a post entitled Prescription drug purchasing pool when an employer..., written by "Steve" pops up.

For anyone occasionally bothering to visit the old URL, this is not me. I wish I had this man's access to the bevy of prescription medication, but no, this is not me. I don't review drugs. My name is also not "Steve".

Call me paranoid, but all of this is a bit hard to believe. Why on earth would anyone register the URL for a blogger account that includes a word I made up on a whim? Is it possible that that person thought they were making up the same word? Were they drinking the same thing I was when I made it up?

It's a bit odd to say the least. I'm going to refrain from making any assumptions that don't include coincidence, but it still creeps me the fuck out.

Japan Vs. America... FIGHT!

2007-06-08T08:58:00.001-05:00

Yet again, Blog@Newsarama's point/counterpoint column addresses one of the many differences between the Japanese manga market and the American comics market.

On the Manga Johou forum, a translated article by Yoshikazu Hayashida, which basically states that the Japanese manga market is able to produce a lot more groundbreaking material with great frequency due to the weekly anthology format, which publishes maybe tens of short serialized comic stories in one volume. This format, according to Hayashida, allows a handful of proven successful manga stories to bear the brunt of keeping up sales, while allowing other stories to experiment a bit more. Given the sheer quantity of "filler" manga stories not responsible for making or breaking sales of a title, the efficiency with which one of these stories will strike a chord and eventually become successful enough to be the next torchbearer in terms of sales, is that much more likely than a magazine/book that features only one story/creative team on it.

Dave Carter of At Yet Another Comics Blog concedes that Mr. Hayashida is correct in many aspects of his analysis, he strongly disagrees that the American comics offers only the one format adopted by most mainstream publishers for their superhero comics. Carter argues that the American indie/alternative/comix has offered an alternative to the ghettoization of the medium for over 30 years.

At this point, this is not a new argument. American manga fans have been arguing that the manga format offers more possibilities in terms of storytelling than American comics. Non-exclusive manga fans, however, have been arguing that their is plenty of diversity in American comics if you look beyond the superhero genre which tends to take up most of the shelf space in any given local comic book shop.

I think both commentators are missing the point.

Carter is correct in that Hayashida is equating American comics with a single genre (admittedly born and raised here in the states). However, what Hayashida is talking about is not a diversity in experimentation present in American comics, but rather the presence of this diversity and experimentation in a format that is as widely available as the most popular best-selling comics. Imagine, if you will, being able to buy an anthology that not only included Countdown or what have you, but also something a kin to The Invisibles as well as an Anders Nilsen strip or an Ivan Brunetti strip.

For some reason, the anthology format is not one that mainstream publishers have tapped into for a long time. If they do, it's generally in the form of a collection of "indie" renditions of popular properties (see: upcoming Marvel "indie" anthology or Bizarro World by DC). The only other publishes putting out anthologies with any regularity are independent ones, who tend to focus on artists already established within the "indie" or "alternative" comic communities.

There is no cross-breading here.

And that's just the way Americans are.

The fact that we're still having this discussion - the fact that we're still making a hardline distinction between "manga" (usually lumped in with it's other aesthetic brethren man-wha and OEL manga) and "comics" proves that we as a community have not really evolved beyond petty playground territorialism. It's essentially the same argument as "DC vs. Marvel", and I'm astonished that we're still giving this any credence.

Yes there are lessons to be learned from the Japanese manga market, just like there are lessons to be learned from the French BD market. Just because one format is dominating the American market currently, doesn't mean it's the answer to every single problem we have with the medium. It's not a question of aesthetics, and it's not a question of form. It's a question of format and marketability.

Dirk Deppey stated it best in a post when, referring to an old George Carlin joke, stated that comics are "resilient". By this he means the medium, just like printed text or moving images, will continue to surivive any changes in technology or the market. I mean, if your big concern is that when manga takes over the American comics market entirely, you may not be able to get your Superman comics on a monthly schedule anymore, then I'm just going to continue to ignore you and pretend you didn't blog anything.

Getting back to the point, I would also like to make reference to the fact that British comic publishers have been putting out weekly anthologies, much like the Japanese, of comic stories long before 52 or Countdown. I mean, British comics may not have produced any American blockbuster film adaptations like a Spiderman or an Ironman or a Batman or a Ka-ChingMan, but their was a time when this format allowed British comic creators to revolutionize the way in which we interact and thought about the comics medium on a regular basis.

The Black Diamond Detective Agency (Quick Review)

2007-06-07T07:10:00.001-05:00

THIS IS MORE THAN COMICS!

You should be reading this.

Black Summer #0 (Quick Review)

2007-06-07T07:09:00.001-05:00

God!

This book is so dense it hurts my face. Eight pages of comic story, six of which are tightly packed, dense-as-hell nine panel grids.Juan Jose Ryp's art is thick as hell. Each line is pitted against the others, and each panel/illustration is just visually packed with information. The illustration used for the wrap-around cover is a perfect example of Ryp's dense style, and in combination with Ellis's writing...

Argh! It hurts!

The fact that Ellis was able to squeeze this much information into eight pages of comic story is testament to his level of skill, which I don't think anyone at this point was still disputing. God. It reads like the first paragraph in a J.G. Ballard novel. This comic will fuck you up.

I guess I'm buying the rest of the series, even though I didn't have any particular interest in following this story before.

Oh, BTW (Tonio's Pull-list)

2007-06-06T12:10:00.001-05:00

New books are out today. People have been talking about the girth of quality comics out this week, but I suppose I have to disagree. Not much interested me this week, but a few things caught my eye:

This week's All New Atom looks like the first Countdown crossover for the new series. I've really been enjoying this book, in spite of the last two issues being fairly weak in comparison. Personally, this might be some of Simone's best work, simply because she's reached the point where she's ready to stretch herself, once again, as a writer. Every few years she gets a bit too comfortable, and while this may chalk up to some excellent Birds of Prey books, it certainly doesn't always mean other good titles from her. But she's a decent writer, and every once in a while she goes out on a limb and tries something new. More often than not, these "new" things turn out to be excellent superhero comics. I'm excited for this issue.

$1.99 issue of Invincible. I've loved this book from the beginning, and in spite of some weaker patches, the book has maintained a level of quality unseen in most mainstream superhero titles. This issue is being advertised as "New Reader Friendly". Not sure what that means, but having flipped through the thing, it doesn't look like it'll be another recap issue like the 99 cent one. It looks like there may be some recap, but also bits of new information.

Warren Ellis's Black Summer #0 comes out today. As Ellis pointed out on his website and on his BAD SIGNAL mailing list, this is chapter 1 in the story. It's not a prologue and it's not an introduction per se. It's the beginning of the story, and apparently, a necessary component in understanding everything. To be honest, I'm not too interested in this book, but considering the cover price, I figured I'd try it out.

Oh, and Eddie Campbell's Black Diamond Detective Agency is out today from TopShelf Books. Do yourself a favor and buy this. I'm pretty excited, since,outside of From Hell, I haven't read too much of his straight fiction. Everything I've read from him has had tinges of autio-biography, if not being completely auto-biographical. My roommate still has all the issues of Bacchus and I've been meaning to read that stuff, but I have developed a bit of a back-log in my reading list. But this is something I'm just going to devour the second I get home.

Almost forgot to mention MPD Psycho, which is a manga anyone with even a passing interest in the form should read. Craziness. Scantilation copies of this have been floating around the web & torrent trackers for a few years now, so if you haven't read any of it yet, now is your chance to read it. You have no more excuses. Also, everyone should see the Takeshi Miike film adaptation of this book. Not because the manga is good, which it is, but simply because Miike is amazing.

That's it for now. Might write more on these books later, after I've actually read them.

Veitch vs. Kubert vs. America

2007-06-06T09:08:00.000-05:00

Army Times has a profile (of sorts) on Rick Veitch's new Army@Love title. The article is particularly of note, since in it Joe Kubert comments not only on Veitch, his former student, but the book whose title is derivative of his own Our Army at War. It's interesting to note that, judging from the comments in the article, that both cartoonist - possibly two of the finest cartoonists of their respective generations - have the utmost respect for each other, and are very respectful in their disagreement (Kubert does not agree with Army@Love's position on war, apparently). It's also interesting that the article covers Veitch's short tenure as the back-up story artist on Sgt. Rock, as part of a deal Kubert struck with DC Comics to get his students work.

Link via Journalista

The Truth is Out

2007-06-05T12:47:00.001-05:00

The Forbidden Planet International Blog has a follow-up story regarding a previous post about Australian cartoonist Bill Leak getting into trouble with the folks at Moulinsart SA in Belgium - the people who own the copyright on Herge's Tintin - over his appropriation of the character's appearance in his depiction of Australian politician Kevin Rudd.

“Rudd looks like the little bloke who is taking on the big adventure and who just might prevail in the end,” Leak explained, adding that he didn’t have to do much to make Tintin resemble Rudd, “All I did was add a bit of a chin to him. And sometimes a little bit of a firmness to the mouth.” (Bill Leak via FPI)

Now I admit that my legal expertice/experience is nil, and that anything I've learned about copyright has come from reading admittedly biased sources, but doesn't this just seem... I don't know....not fair?

Moulsinart, commenting on the situation, stated that Leak not “commercialise paintings and other cartoons reproducing parodied adaptations of Tintin and Snowy” w based on the principles of copyright. I mean, if Leak was drawing a parody of Tintin, would that not be included in fair use? Also, Leak is not drawing a parody of the beloved Herge character. He is making a political statement about a politician, by using Herge's Tintin as an a simile. I mean, surely there has to be room within copyright law to allow literary devices, right?

Ultimately, the issue is not about Leak disrespecting Herge's character, or even disrespecting Moulsinart's ownership of the character (which is funny to me because Moulsinart is a fictional house, and the idea of a house owning anything, let alone a French cartoon house, drums up some very amusing imagery in my head), but rather Leak "disrespecting" Moulinsart's desire to be the only people who make money of a dead man's cartoon character.

Don't get me wrong. Moulinsart is well within their legal rights to take any sorts of actions they desire, if they feel that Leak is going to start making money off these cartoons through commercial sales rather than editorial journalism (yes, I just said that cartooning counts as editorial journalism), but the question to me is whether or not Moulinsart is within their ethical rights to stop Leak from publishing these cartoons through a news periodical.

As cheesy as it sounds, Tintin belongs to the world. I would think it would beneficial to 1. the politician Leak is portraying as such a beloved character, and 2. to Moulsinart, who might benefit from the press and move more units. Again, I don't know much about the business side of comics, and I don't know much about copyright law. But the fact that all of this is making a bit of a stink (small stink, not big stink) leaves a bad feeling in my gut.

Of course it could just be the abhorable excuse of a falafel sandwich I just ate...

All links courtesy of Forbidden Planet International Blog

UPDATE: Apparently Moulsinart's comments about Leak not "commercializing" their property was part of some resolution where they conceded the Leak does in fact have the right to appropriate the image of Tintin as long as he does not sell collections of the cartoons in question. Leak responded, "I'm not a lawyer, I'm a cartoonist. I poke fun at people for a living. I'm sure Herge would have approved," which I just thought was a fun quote. Links courtesy Eddie Campbell's blog (which you should all be reading anyway).

I Believe in Ed Brubaker

2007-06-01T12:32:00.001-05:00

Ed Brubaker may be one of the finest comic writers working in mainstream super hero comics. For sure, the artists whom he chooses to work with contribute quite a bit, whether it be Sean Phillips, David Aja, or Michael Lark. However, Ed Brubaker is one of the finest comic writers today because he is, first & foremost, a writer's writer.

One of the biggest assumptions that people have when considering writers, is that they assume all writers work in the medium of text - that it is really the artist/director that directs the visual impact of any given work, whether it be film, television, or comics, while the writer mostly deals with the words we read. I don't find this to be true. Any true creator needs to be aware of all facets of the medium in which s/he chooses to express themselves, and thinking about a comic book or a television show in terms of the words used is simply not enough because it's not the words telling the story.

The illusions that Brubaker creates in his comic (if you prescribe the Wellseian concept that all fiction/stories are part magic-trick, part con) are virtually seamless. Unless you're like me and spend far too much time dissecting all the tiny little facets of every story you read, it's hard to really explain what makes Brubaker's storytelling consistently work as well as it does. I mean, Deadly Genesis aside, I don't think I've read a Brubaker story, post-Dead Enders, that can be misconstrued as being indulgent on any level. Brubaker's story-telling style is so lean that it almost hurts, and in a genre where most people seem content to write "for the trade" or whatever, that is more than a breath of fresh air. It's a godsend.

Sure, Brubaker knows his way around a sentence. He knows how to deliver a piece of dialog with enough that Chandleresque punch, where every word is like a jab to the gut, and he knows what kind of language is not only appropriate for his characters/world, but what language is best (possibly the only issue I ever have with Brubaker's Iron Fist writing partner, Matt Fraction, is that the language of the franchise characters he writes always sound like Matt Fraction, and not Danny Rand or whoever). But even beyond that, beyond the words, the man knows how to write comics - he knows how to layout a page; he knows how to angle his characters; he knows when to pull out the view and when to close it in. The man knows how to tell a story with pictures & panels.

I'm sure being a cartoonist himself certainly helps Brubaker get a feel for what sorts of visual requirements any particular scene needs in order to work best, but it doesn't stop it from being impressive every time I read it. I briefly mentioned in an older post that I was wowed by Daredevil's conversation with Vanessa Fisk in issue #92, which is entirely made up of super-tight panel grids. These sections perfectly convey the emotional claustrophobia of the situation, only increasing with each turn of the page as the panels get smaller and the grid gets tighter.

I remember thinking to myself as I read it, "This is possibly a perfect comic book. It reads like Phillip Roth paragraph."

I had a conversation with Eli last night regarding Brubaker's run on Daredevil, versus his last story in Criminal. Clearly, they are two very different animals, but Brubaker handles both so flawlessly. Much of this conversation was centered around the "Our Love Story" issue (#94), which got a lot of flak from readers for being "boring" or "unnecessary". I disagree strongly with this sentiment. Aside from the fact that Daredevil is a superhero book, and Criminal is obviously not, the formatting of the series also comes into play. Criminal all takes place in a single world, but jumps from story to story, connected only by the social context of the fictional environment. Daredevil is an ongoing serial set in somebody else's universe. When dealing with stories in a longer form (i.e. story starts before you get there, and ends well after you leave), it is necessary to provide breathing room. It's the sort of situation where filler is necessary, in order to give the world a more organic feel. If every single issue of Daredevil was comprised of fight scenes and high drama, the illusion that Brubaker is creating would loose it's effect. It would become glaringly obvious that these are not actual people, dealing with actual emotions. Obviously, it's still fantastic fiction, but it's important to consider whether a story can be considered believable given the context in which it's presented in. In order for that, we need a bit of padding here and there.

Brubaker does this well, without the padding/filler ever being irrelevant. He understands the importance of pacing within a story-arc and in between story-arcs.

One other point of contention between Eli and I, is that when Brubaker deals with superhero properties, I don't get the feeling that he is dealing with them as superheroes. He deals with them as characters. The "The Devil Takes a Ride" story-arc was just barely a superhero story. If you notice, none of the characters, besides Daredevil himself, ever appear in a gawdy costume, and all of the fight/action scenes are comparatively small on scale - they are not battles, they are brawls.

Contrast this with something like Captain America #25, where Brubaker is dealing with a truly momentous event/idea. I mean, for a series so aware of it's own history and gravitas, the first few pages are surprisingly small in scale. Rather than start the story off with a flashback, or the tail end of action scene, Brubaker gives us a crowd scene. Any flashbacks that occur are told from the perspective of characters in the crowd. This tells us, from the beginning, that this is not Captain America's story. It is the Marvel Universe's story. Even more surprising, for me, is that this actually meant something when I was first reading it. Having grown up a life-long DC fan, Marvel was always the publisher I turned to for creators, not characters. At this point, I could give a crap what the climate of the Marvel U is like, but Brubaker made me care and even believe that something like this could work.

My primary reading interests, even in comics, rarely focuses on superheroes anymore. The resurgence of continuity-porn/crossover fever, has embittered me to the genre. I still believe that there are quite a few really excellent comic creators working within the genre, even for the two big publishers, still worth reading on a regular basis, but I always say that these people should not be writing/drawing superhero books anymore because it's like they're cheating their fans (Greg Rucka is a perfect example of this, because I absolutely love Queen & Country, but have trouble caring about Checkmate in spite of knowing that it's a good comic book). Ed Brubaker, on the other hand, is one of those writers working in the ghetto of the superhero genre, obviously capable of more, but actually makes the genre interesting again. Rather than stoop down to the level of the superhero genre, he elevates it.

30 Signs That You May Qualify as a Nerd

2007-05-24T14:41:00.001-05:00

So after reading this, I came up with a few very painfully obvious indicators that you have begun heading down the inescapable path towards a nerd. Keep in mind that all of these things, save for one item, are ripped straight out of the pages of my own life.

The majority of your CDs are Japanese importted OSTs.
Your contribution to any conversation among friends following a viewing of the newest big-budget Hollywood super hero adaptation always starts with "See, in the comic book..."
You still watch Smallville.
You were a regular viewer of Veronic Mars, but had a crush on Mac instead of Veronica.
Similarly, you were a regular viewer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but had a crush on Alison Hannigan instead of Sarah Michelle Geller.
The most used tag used in your LibraryThing.com account is "comics".
The most used tag used in your LibraryThing.com account is "manga".
The fact that you even have a LibraryThing.com account.
Attractive women/men making reference to Star Wars excites you sexually.
Attractive women making reference to Star Trek is par for the course.
You know what Go-Rangers are.
You know who Captain Harlock is.
You lay awake at night thinking about the differences between Macross & Robotech.
You lay awake at night thinking about who would win in a fight - Hulk or the Thing.
You lay awake at night thinking about who would win in a fight between Superman & Thor, but then quickly assuage your concern by reminding yourself that it doesn't matter since they exist in two separate universes.
Your dream job is working in the Gundam super-store in Osaka, Japan.
You know that next week's new comic book day is Thursday, not the usual Wednesday.
The underwear you've been wearing for the past few days begins to smell like a Port Authority bathroom.
You get emotional over thinking about Newsarama's lack of an RSS feed.
You use the terms "pwn3d" or "IRL" regularly.
In a moment of emotional & psychological weakness, you begin to think that Welcome to the NHK is actually an anime adaptation of your life story beamed into your television/computer from the far-off future.
Your other car is a TARDIS.
You have a sci-fi/fantasy/comic book/LOST blog.
Your summer job throughout most of high school was working the rennaisance fair, and you "score chicks" by making Lord of the Rings references.
You continually get into heated arguments with complete strangers because they don't understand that the Flash is the greatest super hero character of all time.
You have at one time in your life compiled a list longer than 4 entries, of your favorite Flashes in descending order.
You regularly use the Justice League track jacket you bought at the last comic convention as a conversation starter.
You wish that the Justice League track jacket you bought at the last comic convention could actually get you laid.
Any of the items on this list made you laugh out loud in that "It's funny because it's true!" kind of way.
Shortly after laughing, any of the items on this list make you cry in that "It's sad because it's true..." kind of way.

This one goes out to you Mallet. I may not be white, and I may not be over-weight, but I'm still a complete nerd through-and-through. We stand united, brother.

Flash!!! Ah-aah! Savior of the Universe!! BAM BA-BAM BAM BAM!!

2007-05-23T09:16:00.001-05:00

So EW.com (link via Blog@Newsarama) has an interview with Eric Johnson, star of the Sci-Fi network's new Flash Gordon series.

I particularly like this bit:

What’s the mode of transport here?

It’s the old wormhole. Flash’s father was a scientist who was developing the technology. I thought he was lost in a fire, but it turns out he was sucked through this wormhole that he created. So now after 13 years, something came back through, and that something is not so nice, and it’s looking for me.

Now, is it me, or does this sound like the premise for a new season of Doctor Who? I don't know. Maybe I'm just obsessed. But whenever I hear "...something came back through, and that something is not so nice, and it's looking for me," it just reminds me of this, this, and this.

Also, if you replace "wormhole" with "Zeta Beam", the young Flash Gordon all of a sudden sounds like a teenage Adam Strange.

Also Flash gets a T-Bird.

They Really Are Paying Attention!

2007-05-22T13:16:00.001-05:00

Forbidden Planet (the best comic book/sci-fi blog in town - and by town I mean INTERNET) has an excellent post on Filipino cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan. Not only do they mention Alanguilan's excellent series Elmer, they give heavy props to the his work on "The Philippine Comics Art Museum" and Komikero, his excellent, excellent blog.

Gerry Alanguilan is one of those cartoonists that really knows his shit inside and out. He's flawless in his approach to craft (in terms of education and dedication of and towards the creative process), and he maintains an inspiring amount of reverence to some of the most talented, but overlooked cartooning masters to come out of his (and essentially my own) home country, the Philippines.

I've mentioned before (can't locate link...) that unlike most Filipino Americans my age, I don't speak nor can I read a lick of Tagalog. I started speaking and reading English at a fairly early age, and when it came time for me to attend pre-school, a lot of my teacher's were concerned because I kept confusing which words belonged to which language. Also, Tagalog is not my mother's native dialect, and it was easier for her (and my father who had to bear with her "mistakes") to communicate with me in pure English.

For this reason, I again petition the komikeros and the publishers to at least think about translating some of this stuff for U.S. distribution. I think both fans and publisher will be surprised by not only the quality of these works, but also the familiarity. As Alanguilan's Philippines Comics Museum is quick to point out, a lot of American comic work was being done by Filipino artists.

In the meantime, I will have to make due with re-reading my Siglo anthologies, and Alanguilan's excellent, excellent Elmer comic (currently only available here in the States through Independent Propaganda). Elmer is definitely in my top 10 favorite comics coming out right now, so do yourself a favor and check it out and check out the Komikero blog.

More IMDB Inspired "Oh Shit!" Moments

2007-05-22T11:38:00.000-05:00

I'm looking at more IMDB entries, this time for the cast of Lost, when I discover that Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) does the voice for Metron in the Justice League series. That totally blows my mind, since I think I remember shitting my pants when Metron made his appearance on the show.

Also Morena Baccarin from Firefly/Serenity and the upcoming Star Trek movie did the voice for Black Canary.

J.K. Simmons who has been in a whole bunch of notable stuff, but most importantly played J. Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman films, does the voice for General Eidling.

Eric Roberts, most recently of Heroes was Mongul.

And finally, Jeremy Pivens as the motherfucking Elongated Man?!?!?!

On another note, I was already aware of this (since, as you can see, I spend so much time wasted on the IMDB), but I thought it was mentionable since Gilmore Girls just ended its 7 year run on television this week. Scott Patterson (Luke) did the voice for King Faraday. His performance as Faraday was so spot on, it brought to mind the term "perfect casting".

Tonio's Pull-list for 23 May 2007

2007-05-22T11:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, looks like it's not a bad week for pamphlets. Last week saw the release of Ivan Brunetti's Misery Loves Comedy collection (Schizo #1-4 + way more), which may have been the best comic I've bought since NYComiCon (back in February). Also, Black Gas 2 #2 proved to be a surprisingly awesome read (more on that later). Most of the books I pulled last week were all pretty good, and this week looks to be equally as awesome.

Here's my upcoming pull-list for tomorrow (there's a bunch of other books I'm not bothering to buy right now, so they are excluded from the list):

Spirit #6
Madman Atomic Comics #2
Criminal #6
Newuniversal #6

I said what I have to say about Ed Brubaker in the last post, so I won't mention it again. Criminal is possibly one of the funnest monthly reads out there from a mainstream publisher (although I'm sure the creators involved will debate the usage of "mainstream" since this is part of Marvel's creator-owned-and-operated imprint), which proves that there is in fact an audience for mainstream books that don't involve fucking super heroes. I'm a little concerned with the tentative plot on this one, since it so closely follows the ending of the previous story arc, which was the weakest section of the story, but I maintain faith.

This is only the second issue of Mike Allred's newly relaunhed Madman series, and while the first issue proved an interesting read, it gave little indication of the direction or quality of issues to come. Still, it's fucking Madman! How can you go wrong with that?

newuniversal is hands down, the best sci-fi comic book series being put out right now, from any publisher. Do yourself a favor and read the damn book. You won't be sorry. Even if Kenneth Connell/Star Brand looks more and more like Josh Holloway with each issue.

Marvel Solicits for August 2007

2007-05-22T09:40:00.001-05:00

Ok, so following up Eli's post about Marvel's new pro-tentacle porn stance, here are three quick thoughts on Marvel's solicitations (I'm not even touching the Captain America cover, because I still maintain that Brubaker is the Jay-Z of the spandex set, right now).

Ok, is it me or do all the covers for World War Hulk make the "event" just look flat-out retarded. Be that as it may, these covers look more intriguing than any cover that's come out from Marvel in the past year or so. I mean, the Hulk can take down Blackbolt? What the hell is that about?

New Fucking Thor!

This new book by David Lapham, Terror, Inc., looks as equally as "innovative" as World War Hulk, but, judging from this cover, will be worth it because it appeals to my worst childhood obsessions - futuristic weaponry, rotting corpse as anti-hero. Plus, David Lapham, not writing an continuity heavy, tie-in book? Sign me the fuck up!

complaints 2.

2007-05-22T03:29:00.000-05:00

tonio asked me to blog more. so, continuing the longest theme around these parts, what the fuck is up with this?

i hate to point out an artist's failings, but since when is misty knight a miami beach white woman?

oh, and also, impending rape, especially of the fucked up alien kind, isn't sexy. you're disgusting.

Complaints

2007-05-19T11:24:00.001-05:00

Apparently, the US manga market is doing so well that Tokyopop doesn't feel the need to conform to Western Societies quirks:

LIKE INCLUDING FRAKIN' DASHES IN THE ISBN LISTING ON THE BACK OF THEIR BOOKS!!!

Apparently, Del Rey and Viz don't seem to have this problem. They would actually like their books to be catalogged and put in libraries & such. I guess at this rate, the libraries don't really have a choice, but c'mon! Help a brother out.

P.S. I hate your logo!

The IMDB just brain-pwn3d me!!

2007-05-18T15:15:00.001-05:00

Those of you who knew me, know that I have a tendency to become momentarily fixated on things. Some people call them "obsessions". I don't like to refer to them as such, simply because the word "obsession" insinuates that these fixations last over an extended period of time. "Momentary fixation" or "momentary infatuation" tends to sum up my condition the most appropriately.

Around the years 2003/2004 (the year Eli and I shared a house) I have quite a few fixations that my roommates were more than well aware of. The two most prominent, aside from my daily experiments in finding new ways to ingest Ramen, were David Cronenberg's 1981 film Scanners and the Timmverse Justice League cartoon. I had even brought along VHS tapes I had painstakingly editted, of redesigned Batman: TAS episodes not yet available on DVD (you think that's nerdy, you should have seen the VHS "best-of mix" I made for Eli the following year).

Little did I realize at the time, however, that three years after the fact those to specific fixations would collide into a frenzy of... Oh fuck it.

Michael "Daniel Revick" Ironside (pictured left) did the voice work for "80s Batman" in the amazing "Legends of the Dark Knight" episode. For those unfamiliar with the episode, the basic premise is that three children recant vastly different interpretations of the "mythylogical" Batman. One being based on the Batman of the 60s, the other being based on the "grim-'n-gritty" Batman of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returs, and the other just being a boring old shadow monster with pointy ears & fangs. Most notable about this episode, other than the fact that Ironside's Batman is so amazingly dead-on, is the barely obscured back hand directed towards Batman Forever/Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher.

Even more amazing than this particular tidbit, was the fact that Revick...I mean, Ironside also did the voice for Darkseid in the final seasons of the Timmverse Superman, Justice League, and of course Justice League Unlimited. This of course explains why every time I watch the series finale, my nose bleeds a little.

Ironside seems like quite the accomplished thespian. Of course, by "accomplished thespian" I mean NERD. This in no way is meant to invalidate his career. In fact, I had no idea he had bit parts in some of my favorite childhood films, like Top Gun, Highlander II, and The Next Karate Kid - which was the film debut of another giant set of teeth, I mean thespian, Hilary Swank. Also, Ironside was in V. You can't beat that.

Right now it looks as if I may have to print out this IMDB entry and just hit up the local video store, making a weekend of it.

Today's Releases

2007-05-16T12:12:00.001-05:00

Correct me if I'm wrong but, are two of the most delayed mainstream comic books coming out on the same day:

MAR070173 ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #5 (RES) $2.99
MAR070174 ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN VAR #5 (RES) $2.99

OCT062127 ULTIMATES 2 #13 $3.99

I think my mind has now just been blown. I thought I'd be dead by the time those books came out.

2007-05-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This post only has a passing relation to comics, but I felt that some of the issues I discuss are particularly relevant to a lot of the problems I have with mainstream comics today.

See, this is what happens when I can't get my weekly Doctor fix: I watch sci-fi television series I have no particular interest in.

Finished watching Torchwood on Saturday. It's link to the Doctor Whoverse, and its standing as an official spin-off are somewhat perfunctory. Sure we have the appearance of a Cyber(wo)man, but a Cyber(wo)man whose appearance and behavior in no way resembles what we are used to seeing in Doctor Who. Sure the TARDIS makes a sort-of appearance or at least is alluded to at the very end of the series finale, after Captain Jack makes the first mention of the Doctor in the entire series. Other than that it just appears to be another mediocre sci-fi team drama.

That was mean, wasn't it? I mean, I do really like some of the characters. Of course, none of the characters that I'm supposed to love or simply be enamored with. I have such a contentious relationship with Captain Jack at this point that I can't decide whether I want to kiss him (which he would love) or if I want to punch him (which I'm sure he would also love in some sick/twisted way). I do, however, love Ianto & Toshiko. I can barely stand anyone else on the team at this point. Even if Owen did have a good performance during the whole Weevil/Fight Club thing.

My main problem with the show seems to be its fixation with "love" sex. Not that there's anything wrong with a person being obsessed with that, I suppose.

Character "depth" comes in the form of an episode-long romance doomed to end tragically before the 50 minute mark. If the experience of said romance was particularly effecting, then that plot thread will continue into the next few episodes, only to be exploited on an explosive level in the season finale.

I had it pegged from episode three.

Over at the Journalista blog Dirk Deppy gave a perfect dissection of the state of current mainstream super hero comics [specifically pertaining to this image]:

"…isn’t that it’s misogynist, but that it’s fucking ridiculous. This looks like sexual-fetish material, sure, but it would have exactly the same weird-ass vibe if both of the depicted characters were men. This image isn’t “sexist,” it’s emotionally stunted. Wrapped in the garb of teenage fantasy, it cannot help but take on an air of unreality that no infusion of sex or violence will dispel. Sixty years of accumulated kiddybook clichés won’t suddenly become adult reading material if you add lesbian relationships, hardcore gore or extended scenes of chartered accountancy; the latter only throw spotlights on the childishness of the former."

Oddly enough, this tends to address almost all of my issues with Torchwood and a lot of genre fiction coming out these days in mainstream media outlets.

This leads me to another point.

For almost a year now, I've had to listen to some of my closest friends colleagues sing the praises of Battlestar Galactica, to the point that I am now morally obligated, as a fan of science fiction, to catch up on the entire series. It's not that I haven't given the show a chance, it just honestly doesn't interest me that much.

That's right. I said it. I don't care about BSG.

I really don't.

The problem with shows like Torchwood and BSG, and subsequently most mainstream super hero comics, is that in spite of sci-fi and comics being treated as a cultural ghetto, these stories are trying desperately to tap into a cultural vein that allows more "mature" stories to be told within their respective genres. But as most intelligent comic fans know at this point, blood, guts, and sex do not a mature story make. I mean, any adolescent with a word processor can produce a work of fiction that contains "mature" elements like violence and sex, but that doesn't make it any better than the story they wrote when they were eight, that lacked those things.

Torchwood does not make sense to me as "Doctor Who for adults" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets the X-Files". Likewise, BSG doesn't make sense to me as "The West Wing in space", because with each of these shows maintained/maintains an identity wholly unto itself. Doctor Who doesn't try to emulate anything other than Doctor Who. X-Files never claimed to be anything more than X-Files. These stories were strong enough to stand on their own without comparison and without contrast. I honestly don't believe that Torchwood proves itself to be a good enough work of fiction to do that. BSG's standing as a piece of fiction in this regard, after three seasons, is arguable.

It doesn't make sense to me that someone would write a novel or a short story, in hopes of being as good as or comparable to something else. That's just not how the creative process works.; Sure, there's the Picasso line about how "all artists borrow", but that's something entirely different. That's about the transference of inspiration, of ideas. If you set your sights to emulate a specific work of fiction, when your work reaches that level, but never manages to rise above that or become something wholly new and exciting, you have no one to blame but yourself.

You can't make "Buffy meets the X-Files" into a sustainable series. At a certain point, your story is going to have to grow wings of its own and be able to carry itself on its own merits. You can't emulate a show like The West Wing, but have your show set in space or under the sea or on a zepplin, and expect it to be any good. The West Wing operates on completely different rules than BSG.

Emulating a piece of fiction that is important, doesn't make your piece of fiction important by association. All it does is make your work momentarily relevant. There's nothing wrong with that, but it will certainly not go down in the history books as even a footnote. Your work can only be encompassed in the cultural dialog if you offer something new and noteworthy to say. It doesn't how clever you spin someone else's ideas, because at the end of the day, there still somebody else's ideas.

Green Arrow #74

2007-05-12T11:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, I may be forced to take back all the mean things I said about the way in which DC has been handling the whole One Year Later if all their books contained scenes like this:

SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NO LOOK UNLESS YOU'VE READ GREEN ARROW #74 OR DON'T CARE ABOUT SPOILERS. SPOILER WARNING!!!

I know Eli's going to make fun of me for this, but I cried when I read that page. Is that so wrong to ask? Just a few moments that pack a ton of emotional wallop into 8 panels? Is that so hard for you DC? Is it too much to ask?

Countdown #51

2007-05-12T11:25:00.001-05:00

I really really hope that DC's new maxi-series, Countdown, can sustain its own weight. In many ways its predecessor, 52, was almost Homeric in tone, detailing the journey of the DCU over the "lost" year. Unfortunately though, a Homeric epic doesn't quite work without the presence of the Divine. Sure in 52 there was plenty of mysticism, but very rarely did we see any real characters that encompassed that level of godly power. Essentially it was quiet coming-of-age story. You can jam pack with all the chaos and craziness you want, but plastering "World War III" on the cover four comic books doesn't automatically give it emotional impact

Countdown could have the very same problem of faltering under its own weight. 52 issues of a comic gives you plenty of room for a story to degenerate into something unrecognizable. I think 52's biggest problem was its constant need to adhere to the concept of "real time". Countdown, in its first issue, has already freed itself from this, by presenting a very brief moment in time. It doesn't jump in time in space the way 52's first issue did, in an attempt to display the "grand" scope of itself. If Paul Dini continues to do his job right, this story will be aware of its own portentousness, but won't need to use it's self-awareness as a crutch.

Already, in issue #51, its proven itself capable of the kind of pacing required in a epic. The ending of 52 left so many DC fans with low expectations, regardless of the DC/Warner Bros. hype machine's efforts. Lower expectations makes the task of telling an epic story that much easier. With 52 and Infinite Crisis, we were constantly too aware of how large the story was supposed to be. With Countdown we are slightly less aware. Countdown is not about defining or redefining the DCU. It's simply a story set in the DCU. It's the same reason that Identity Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis was far more powerful and effective than the Infinite Crisis mini-series itself.

Hopefully Countdown can keep the work up. This first issue, along with the three big reveals, contains some damn solid writing on the part of Dini, as well as maybe the first comic where I actually enjoyed looking at Jesus Saiz's art. I'm excited to see what Sean McKeever will be doing with the story. I wasn't too impressed with his work with World War III, but I am a huge fan of his Spiderman Loves Mary Jane work, so I have faith that when presented with a better story, he can really produce.

Right now, it's obviously way too early to tell how well Countdown is going to work as a story, but taking into account only the first issue, I'd have to say I'm pretty curious/excited to see what is going to come out next.

Spiderman 3 is your best friend's ugly girlfriend

2007-05-06T01:17:00.000-05:00

We arrived at the theatre at 9:00 PM. The 9:30 & 10:00 screenings had both been sold out. The line for the 10:30 screening had already begun to form at the oppostie end of the multiplex.

I arrived in NJ around 5PM. Shortly after my mother and her friend picked me up from the train station, our car got hit and I almost got into a fist fight with and angry cyclist (he was not the one who hit our car). I don't think I've been in a proper fist fight since high school, and those barely count because I stopped caring about winning a fight after my sophomore year. It was easier to just take the beatings, and after that nobody bothered. This guy didn't take a swing, like I told him he couldn't, in spite of me making fun of his outfit and sticking my middle finger in his face. I don't condone violent interaction. Not even yelling or screaming. But you don't fuck with my moms. Seriously.

Shortly after the altercation I met up with my dad and he drove me to the store to pick out a funeral-suit. The guy at the store had a Russian accent and was a little too "hands on" for my tastes. It's hard enough finding a t-shirt that I feel comfortable in. Try finding a $200 suit. I stopped trying them on after the third suit, for fear that the Russian salesman would continue to find excuses to put his hands in my groin area.

There was a story in the NY Times' Arts & Leisure section about Philip K. Dick. The writer was smug and dismissive, in spite of trying really hard to write a puff-piece. The words "pulp" were used frequently. Not always favoreably either. He made fun of hard core fans a lot. He compared Dick to Emerson. I don't think he got it.

It was nice to see Will and Josh. Josh was already in a pissy mood to begin with. He just got back from visiting his sick girlfriend in the hospital, and he was not pleased about having to go to work on a Sunday. When Josh is down, he has a tendency to bring those around him down with him. It's a talent he has. He just sits there quietly, checking the time on his cell phone every other minute, and starts his sentences with "Errrreah..." and ends them with "...but whatever, man. It's not up to me." That made the whole ride to the movie theatre pleasant.

Apparently my home town movie theatre - the one all my friends worked at - had now become overridden with "creeps". There were cops and rowdy teenagers everywhere. I told them to go to Times Square on any Saturday night. It made me sound like a pretentious New Yorker, which is funny because every time I open my mouth in NY I sound like a scummy kid from New Jersey. Will insisted on going to the giant multi-plex on route 1.

When we finally got into the theatre it was a half hour before they began showing previews. It then took them another half hour to project anything on the movie screen with any consistency. I saw snippets of the new Lindsay Lohan movie god knows how many times, with the sound dropping out here, the image dropping out there. Josh checked the time.

Spiderman 3 was such a messy hodgepodge of one CGI fight scene after another. It would've been more fun to look at if I had remembered to bring drugs. But I didn't, so I had to sit there for nearly three hours watching CGI fight scenes interspersed with Tobey McGuire's awful "I'm crying!" face. It seriously could have been cut down to a single hour-and-a-half fight scene and everyone in the theatre would have walked away with essentially the same experience.

The movie was so over-crammed with multiple plot lines competing with each other for screen time that they only were able to squeeze in one truly great J. Jonah Jameson moment. It felt like someone had editted together all the important parts of a television series. Like the beginning of Veronica Mars when the say "Previously on Veronica Mars: 'Duncan Kane - he was my boyfriend. That is until his sister Lilly, my best friend, was murdered. My dad went after the Kane family. They destroyed him, and my mother couldn't take it anymore. She left us 6 months ago." Imagine watching that for three hours.

The best parts of the movie dealt with Flint Marko/Sandman. More so than any of the actual superhero action, these scenes looked to have been ripped out of the pages of some weird 60s EC comic. It looked brilliant. Had Raimi been trying to make a good film, instead of a Hollywood blockbuster that specialized in fanboy handjobs, he would have made the entire movie look like the scenes featuring the Sandman.

And is it me or has Kirsten Dunst actually become a worse actress? Previously, her acting, at best, ranged from Vacant to Ethereal. In Spiderman 3 she simply became ignorable. You almost don't want Spiderman to save her. I did like the outfits she wore. They were all metropolitan class. It was a signifier that she had moved up in the world. Just like comic books. Did you know that they're not just for kids anymore?

All of this is evident in the use of a metaphor similar to someone trying to bash your head in with a rubber mallet. Annoying and ultimately futile. Anger, rage, and resentment can destroy who you are. Really. Spiderman 3 told me so. Also, subcumming to your rage will make you a way better dancer. Really. Spiderman 3 told me so. Like five times. And then there was the CGI fight scene to end all CGI fight scenes. At least until Shrek the Third comes to theatres.

Gwen Stacy? Oh, yeah. That was that "fanboy handjob" I was talking about. She proved to be completely expendable. Just like Theresa Russel's appearance as Felicia Hardy. She wasn't even referred to by her first name, and I was very tempted to yell out "Art Garfunkel had sex with your bloated corpse!!" when she stepped on screen. Oh and James Franco is only sexy when he smiles. Otherwise he just looks funny.

Maybe I'll watch the movie again on DVD and see how it stands up when I'm not in such a terrible mood.

I doubt it'll be much better, but I might be more forgiving.

Sam Raimi doesn't need to make any more movies like this. He's proven himself too good for that. He needs to stop dating down.

"Passion that Sometimes Comes with a Death Threat"

2007-05-04T10:08:00.001-05:00

I suppose it's better than passion that sometimes comes with a Death Note?

Avi Arad is interviewed over at Wired Magazine about this weekend's Spiderman 3 opening.

I will not be checking it out here in NY. Instead, I am going to go back to NJ, round up some old comic book loving high school buddies, and we're all going to go together.

Fun times.

I will post some thoughts some time tomorrow night.

Life After Death

2007-05-02T11:50:00.001-05:00

Are there any more zombie-genre stories left to tell? The medium of comics has recently been over-saturated with generic zombie story, after generic zombie story, culminating in Marvel's Marvel Zombies. At this point, everyone seems to be sick of them, but are we sick of zombie stories, or is there anything left out there that could possibly breathe life into this seemingly (un)dead sub-genre.

Granted, there are a few good zombie books being put out right now. The drama-level of Robert Kirkman's Romero-worshipping The Walking Dead

remains consistent, but about half-way through the series, it lost it's moral footing. The gray areas became too gray. The character flaws have come to define the characters, rather than simply flesh them out. It has degenerated from a book that featured zombies, to a book that is about zombies.

Arguably, none of George Romero's classic zombie films have ever really been about zombies, just like no science-fiction story set in the future is really about the future. The zombies were more scenery than anything. The created an environment in which specific social issues could be tackled. That is why, unlike a long-form ongoing comic book series, they only last two hours. To extend the story beyond that would be hitting your audience over the head with a hammer. But without moral conviction, Romero inspired zombie stories have virtually nothing to offer us.

On the other hand, European styled zombie stories (a la Zeder or Zombi) have certain aesthetic strengths that their American cousins are lacking in. Warren Ellis' Black Gas mini-series has been a perfect example of this aesthetic translated to the printed comic page. The moral footing of these kinds of stories is a bit shakier, boiling down to 'everyone's a fucker', which Ellis pulls off perfectly (again). The biggest difference, however, is in its attention to the aesthetics of horror. Euro-zombie stories are supposed to be genuinely scary and/or creepy. You'd think that this kind of storytelling would prove so effortless for cartooning, since you essentially can create any mood or atmosphere that you desire without having to expand a SFX budget.

At the end of the day, however, the problem is not zombies, but too strong a focus on zombies. Even Black Gas seems to have the problem of pacing a story along with featuring enough zombie eating flesh moments on top of that. The most exciting of zombie stories prove that.

Jason's The Living and the Dead, and Brain Ralph's post-zombie-apocalypse story Daybreak, are fresh new zombie stories that work. Both stories use the zombies as little more than window-dressing, giving the narrative a bit of an extra 'umph', but are capable of standing on their own. If only there were more people willing to tell stories (zombie or not) like these two, I would be buying a lot more comics right now.

What we love about zombie movies is the zombies themselves, but unfortunately that is hardly ever what makes a movie worth watching or a comic worth reading. The zombie is a trope that works because it can easily be connected with various other tropes of almost any genre within fantastic/speculative fiction.

So to answer my question, there are more zombie stories out there to tell, but nobody seems to be imaginative or clever enough to come up with them. Until then, the genre will remain another ghetto the comics medium has tried to cash-in on and destroyed in the process. It will take an unbelievable amount of talent and craft to ressurect zombie fiction.

Fangirl Link for Today

2007-05-01T08:18:00.001-05:00

I'm sure there are more out there, but Karma Girl author Jennifer Estep talks about her new superheroine book and other women's issues in terms of popular superhero fiction.

Some good questions are asked, and some good answers are given. Generally speaking, it's nice to see a non-comics reading woman discussing the issues of genre fiction. It just goes to show that there is a female audience out there for superheroine franchises, if this wasn't the crap they were trying to shill.

Rise!

2007-05-01T06:57:00.001-05:00

New trailer for Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Everyone on the internet is pretty much raving about how good it makes the movie look. Personally, not having seen the movie, I can assume it's still crap. I'd rather watch the old Silver Surfer cartoon if I'm going to watch anything having to do with 'ol chrome dome.

(Yes, I did just use "'ol")

Comics Not in Comics

2007-04-30T16:16:00.001-05:00

So I've been watching a lot of television.

A lot of television.

I've noticed that graphic literature/comics have been getting quite a bit of reference in the mainstream media lately.

Beyond the constant barrage of "Zap! Pow! Comics are not just for kids, anymore!" and "Kids love Manga!!" articles that seem to come out consistently.

I think that is a good thing.

Some references made in television in fact deal with the preconceived nothing that comic books are made for children, albeit in somewhat backhanded ways that inevitably make comics out to be, not only reading material for kids, but reading material for grown-upkids as well.

Whatever.

I'll take 'em where I can get 'em.

(Yes I did just use "'em" instead of "them".)

Here's a quick run-down of how some of my favorite tv shows have been referencing comics:

Lost Fans who have been following the show will not be surprised that the creators of Lost reference comic books. In the very first season, one of Hurley's comics (a Spanish-language translation of a Mark Waid Green Lantern/Flash story, which I assume was part of the Brave & the Bold mini-series) makes a few appearances, as it is handed off from character to character. However, as the slipstream-style drama has escalated over the past season and a half, the witty pop-culture references have been sidelined along with Charlie and Hurley. "Serious" comic reading Lost fans were excited by the prospect of comic's "it-boy", Brian K. Vaughn, perhaps bringing some elements of comic-styled storytelling to the show, and what they got instead was an exchange between Hurley and Charlie arguing over whether the Flash was faster than Superman. Those of us in the know obviously recognize the Flash as the faster man (fastest man alive, in fact), but one of the beautiful things about this exchange, for me, is that it is in fact identical to maybe 5,000 different conversations I've had growing up one of the few unabashed Flash fans in elementary school. To add to this beautiful fan-boy moment, Hurley takes it up a notch by referencing the classic Flash/Superman story when Charlie begs the question, Why on Earth would Superman want to race the Flash? "Uh, I don't know. For charity?" Brilliant!!

30 Rock Aside from having consistently grown from a fairly clever/funny show that started off a bit rocky (pardon the pun) to possibly the best network comedy show currently on air (I know it's going to get canceled before it's time), it consistently uses terms like "frick", "dang", "oh snap", and "blerg" as running jokes. Even better, however, has been the use of "By the hammer of Thor!"

Raines I honestly have no idea why no one is talking about how amazing Raines is. It has, at it's foundation, possibly the greatest must-win combination in the history of television: Jeff Goldblum and endless Raymond Chandler references. That's right. Both of those things, in one television show. Why are you not watching this? I have no idea. On top of this, of course, are the comic references. Several, in fact. The police sketch artist who works with Raines, is an aspiring graphic artist, for which Raines constantly belittles him for. To Raines' credit, an overheard conversation of said artist with his agent on the phone has him turning down work for Archie Comics, stating "If you want the Dark Knight, or Watchmen, you know where to find me." Also, an entire episode (Stone Dead) deals entirely with an art student studying cartooning as the victim, and his entire world of persnickety fanboys, goth girlfriend, and, hitting it even closer to home, washed-up stoner gangs. The comic references have seemed to have ended there, and the season finale (as announced by NBC, in spite of another, un-aired, episode being listed on tv.com) was quite shaky compared to the rest of the season, but I will continue to watch the show for as long as it airs. I re-iterate: Jeff Goldblum + Raymond Chandler.

Sidenote: I'm not sure if anyone has noticed this, but the apartment building of the victim in the Pilot episode, is nearly identical to the building Philip Marlowe lives in, in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, which has a similar must-win combination of Elliot Gould + Raymond Chandler.

Did I ever tell you about how I actually considered joining the seminary?

2007-04-24T09:30:00.001-05:00

It's true.

I thought about it.

That dude above might have been me (aside from the whole, resentment towards the Catholic Church for screwing up my psyche that I still maintain today).

Towards the end of high school (I attended a Catholic high school), a lot of my teachers began trying to recruit kids into the brotherhood, stating that the church would pay for their education after a certain amount of time, etc. etc.

Very similar to the Army's recruitment strategy.

They didn't court me though.

The Marines did.

Hard.

Really hard.

Anyway, none of this is neither here nor there.

If you are a big follower of the inter-net, you may have seen some items about the Catholic Church using manga-sytled comics about real people's experiences in the seminary. Seems like an innocuous enough recruitment strategy, even with the reputation Christian oriented comics have gotten from Chick Publications, but I honestly believe that the Catholic Church is a slightly different animal (read: The Death Cookie by Chick Publications). Yaoi jokes aside.

Anyway, I just couldn't let go of this particular quote:

"Cartoons, particularly Manga-styled ones, are a good way of reaching young people, even up to the age of 25," says Father Embery.

Because there aren't 30 year old "otaku" who live in their mom's basement, reading Death Note all day and fansubbing anime.

It's a good thing that most of my comic-reading friends are under the age of 25.....

Oh wait, that's not true.

I feel surprisingly guilty now.

Eisner Nominees for 2007

2007-04-20T11:18:00.001-05:00

Here is a complete list of all the nominees.

Not a bad batch, in my opinion, but I can't say that I'm in complete agreement on some of the nominations. Of course, I'm not an Eisner judge, so the decision is really not up to me.

I appreciate the creator driven aspect of the awards (I mean it is the creators being nominated, more so than the books), and while I think that most of the super hero themed works nominated are deserving of honor, I do honestly have to wonder about the level of variety. I mean, any super hero books nominated were either created by Ed Brubaker or Darwyn Cooke, Batman: Year 100 and All Star Superman aside.

Also, is Fables really that good? It's an enjoyable read, but I gave up on it after a few issues. Has it really gotten that much better? It's one of those books, like Y: The Last Man, that I (could) enjoy the hell out of and read regularly, but would never say it's one of the best comics ever.

These are probably two of the most overrated comics in the market today. Like I said, I enjoy the shit out of some BKV aktion as much as the next nerd, but Y is by far one of his weaker masterpieces. And to be completely honest, just because a comic book is really good at being a great comic book, doesn't mean that it really reaches the literary aspirations that everyone seems to be forcefully injecting into the medium.

And while some of the more hyped nominees like Yang's American Born Chinese and Alison Blechdel's Fun Home certainly achieve a fairly high level of literariness, it's far from breaking new ground (no matter what the NY Times says).

That being said, there are quite a few nominees who, in my opinion, have done some really amazing work in the medium, if not in terms of literary aspirations, than by all means cinematic, or visual, or even comical.

Brian Chippendale's Ninja (Best Graphic Album - New) is seriously some next level shit. Not necessarily new new ground for any of the Fort Thunder cartoonists, but the packaging and presentation is some of the best I've seen. Yes, I'm a sucker for over-sized books that don't fit in my book shelf, and yes I also own Lost Girls (AKA The Giant Purple Brick), and the packaging of Ninja blows it away.

I don't think that I can hype Scandinavian cartoonist Jason enough. Eli and I had a conversation recently where we debated which cartoonists and writers were breaking new ground in the medium. Jason was among my list, but Eli contested my opinion, by stating that good cartooning isn't enough to break new ground. I argued that it was if the craftsmanship of the cartoonist was so pure and so refined that it actually defined the language of the medium to come. Jason is very close to being at this point, and his nominated book The Left Bank Gang, is perhaps the best example of his work's potential available states-side. It's also one of the most powerful books I've read in a long long time. Comics or otherwise.

A few more quick notes:

Lewis Trondheim's A.L.I.E.E.E.N. is probably my favorite book that First Second put out last year, which says a lot since they put out some really amazing books last year
I'm actually not too familiar with most of the manga in the Best US Edition of International Material - Japan category, but I read the volumes of Old Boy released by Dark Horse. It's good, but is it really worth an Eisner?
The fact that Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo really brings up some serious questions about what can be considered a "comic book" and a "comic strip". Eddie Campbell defines a comic book as a long-form comic strip, and a graphic novel as a longer-form comic strip. The stories included in Abandon the Old in Tokyo are all about 4 - 6 pages in length and were included in an ongoing erotic manga anthology. So do short stories like this count as "strips" or "books"? Considering the limitations of the newspaper and the differences in graphic design, I would venture to say that a few of the Tatsumi stories are probably equal in density as any Sunday Peanuts strip. I don't know. I could be wrong.
That being said, Tatsumi sort of kills the "competition" in the Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books category, but would be given a run for his money in the Best Archival Collection/Project - Strips category.
I'm very disappointed with the judges choices for Best Digital Comics. None of them are that great. I would pick Dan Goldman's fucked-up psychedelic roommate dramedy, Kelly, over Shooting War any day. And seriously, Bee?
I didn't think Kramers Ergot 6 was that great a collection. There have been better volumes of the anthology, and better anthologies released last year.
Ivan Brunetti should win every category that he is nominated for.
Except Best Humor Publication, which would necessitate that Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot Comics win because the Flaming Carrot saved my life.
I still have not read his Gumby book. I know I should though.
Does Young Avengers really count as a "continuing series" at this point since, it's, you know, no longer continuing?
I am seriously giving myself palpitations trying to decide whether to root for Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100 mini-series, or Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey. Sock Monkey!!
I can't believe Stan Fucking Lee got nominated for an Eisner Award. Seriously? Seriously?!? What's next?

In a completely unrelated note, I still have no computer at home. So blogging is still sort-of suspended. A lot of really good stuff came out this week, and I downloaded a bunch of awesome stuff to read. So if I get a new computer soon, expect some furious comic blogging.

Harder

2007-04-16T01:04:00.001-05:00

My computer died this morning. Same day I got sick and some other
crappy crap happened to me. Or rather, the crappy crap happened and I
got in the way. Anyway blogging has been suspended for now. Way too
much tn deal with on top of this so internet is my last concern.

--
sent via mobile device...

Madman

2007-04-12T14:33:00.001-05:00

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday. Way more shook up about it than I thought I would be. I was under the impression that he was going to outlive us all because he was, in my opinion, one of the few fit to stand whatever judgment we face at the end of the universe with all the playful honesty that has made his writings so effective.

But enough about that. I promised no more non-comic related posts.

Has anyone read the new Madman book that Image just put out?

All I can really think about is how weird it seems to me.

But then again, it is a Madman book. It strives to be "weird" I guess.

Laura Allred's colors is a nice visual shift compared to the Madman comics I'm used to reading. Everything seems less dark, less bouncey, but at the same time a bit less static and a bit more real. Allred's modernist/Art Deco inspired layouts seem to have reached its pinnacle with this new book. It really grounds the story in that pop art aesthetic, even more so than any of Allred's previous works.

I know that sounds crazy to you familiar with Madman but, hey, it's a new Madman book. It can get crazier.

By crazy I don't necessarily mean schizophrenic or even psychedelic. I feel the people confuse the two.

Madman or even The Atomiks have always been sort of wacky and silly, but they always followed a specific kind of logic. It may not have always fit perfectly with our own logic, here in the world of non-fiction, but it still maintained a sense of logic regardless.

It's like the difference between Surrealism and Dadaism, which a lot of people seem to mix-and-match. Surrealism literally means "super realism". It doesn't always mean that one realism is superior or better than the other (although I have a feeling Breton would dispute that), but rather that one is a bit more intense or vastly different from the other. Madman is surrealism in it's most straight forward and digestible form. It follows an eschewed narrative, but a narrative that can be followed if one extends oneself enough.

Dadaism, on the other hand, is the absence of logic. It is nonsense. The word "dada" actually means "hobby horse". There is no real meaning behind that definition. Dadaism is only consequential in its inconsequential nature.

Anyway, Madman Atomic Comics seems to be more along the lines of Oddity Odyssey (republished by Oni Press), which was a much darker affair than say the Madman series published by Dark Horse Comics.

While Madman (the Dark Horse series, again) is fun and light and exuberant in its whimsy, Oddity Odyssey is unsettling and angst ridden. It's the two poles of mental illness. The seemingly nonsensical silliness of play, versus the burden of a heightened sensitivity to reality. Rather than pit one against the other, Allred had separated the two concepts into two different stories/series to more finely dissect and pick apart. The first issue of Madman Atomic Comics seems more in line with the burden angle than the play angle, although it is reasonably too early in the series to suss out Allred's ultimate intention.

Ultimately, Madman is a product of modernism. It is only post-modern in that it is aware of itself as a product of modernism, and often makes reference to this. It plays with iconography and its meaning, rather than aesthetics or pastiche. But at its core is the main tennant of modernism - laying bare the bones of the device. It is a comic book that operates in the logic and reason of a comic book. It celbrates its own silliness and wackiness, with reverence, but not obligation, to what has come before.

This is why Allred's Dark Horse Madman series was such a breath of fresh air in the age of the "grim 'n gritty" appropriation. Rather than appeal to the darker side of a decidedly cynical audience in an attempt to affect drama, Allred abandoned dramatism altogether to form something much more compelling.

The darkness of Oddity Odyssey doesn't diminish the stories power, nor does it drag down its characters. It still remains a story that is ultimately fun to read. But if the age of "darkness" is over, there is no need for Allred to produce the antidote any more.

If Atomic Comics is any indication, we can assume the Frank Einstein, along with Allred, have returned to more existential issues. This can either be considered a "good" thing or a "bad" thing, depending on what you want from your comics. Either way, this new series looks to be an interesting ride regardless of direction.

I remain positive in any expectations of Madman Atomic Comics.

NOTE: Madman Atomic Comics is not to be confused or associated with Fox Atomic Comics. Madman Atomic Comics is published and printed by Image Comics, an entirely separate entity.

Ding Dong

2007-04-11T12:58:00.001-05:00

Eli will be MIA for the rest of April. That leaves the relatively minuscule amount of posts here down to one man - me.

I've been so super busy with work, and caring for my two cats, that I've had hardly any time to write/blog about anything, nor have I had sufficient time to make any kind of headway through my ever-growing Reader list.

So on that note, I'll just mention a few "quick" things:

Something seems to have been up with my regular store's Image shipment.  All of last week's books all got in a week late (that means last week's Image books and this week's Image books were received today, Doogie Howser).  That means, I didn't get my copy of Mike Allred's new Madman comic until today. 
For those of you paying attention, that means that I'm very excited about this week's pull.  I admit that I indulged myself a bit this week, but with me pulling two copies of Invincible and X-Factor, plus a copy of Powers for Eli, I figured I might as well get almost all the books I want for myself and I'll have Eli foot the bill later. 
Ooh, new episode of Lost tonight.  That means all comic reading and kitten petting will promptly cease at 9:58 PM.
Does anyone know when the hell Ivan Brunetti's new collection is coming out?  Nobody's been talking about it, and I have no idea when Fantagraphics ships things, or when my store would order it.  They're often too busy whenever I go in there to answer my inane questions about "When is Book X coming out?"
Also, when is the new issue of Mome coming out?  I thought it should have been out by now, but again, for the reasons above I'm pretty much operating in the dark.
Have I mentioned that I think Ivan Brunnetti is an absolute genius?
Reason # Infinity why I hate Adrien Tomine: that shit is fake!  You're upset (well, actually it's your characters, but I assume it's you too) that your girlfriend doesn't talk to you?  Anders Nilsen's girlfriend doesn't talk to him because she's DEAD!!  Meaning, your heartache is affected and disingenuous to the point of inspiring nausea.
That Weezer poster you did all those years ago was awesome, though.  Too bad I can't stand Weezer anymore either.
Why is it that whenever I tell anyone the story about how I witnessed some woman getting robbed by a gang of big angry teenagers on the subway, the question everyone asks is, "And you just stood there?" or "And nobody did anything?".  Take into account that the entire episode occured within 1.5 - 2 minutes and also BIG ANGRY TEENAGERS.  They could have been concealing a switch blade or a laser torch or something.  I don't know.  I've already admitted to being a coward many times, so don't get all self-righteous on me.
Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with Doctor Who right now?  I mean, I've been a fan for a while, but with no regular broadcasting of a contemporary series, it was hard for me to keep up.  So, in the event that the current series runs out of steam, may I propose a Doctor Who comic drawn by Ed Templesmith? This image has been my computer's desktop for days now and I just can't help but stare at it constantly.
This post has not turned out to be nearly as "quick" as I intended it.
I can't decide whether I'm excited about Warren Ellis' new Doktor Sleepless series coming out on Avatar.  I love me some Warren Ellis sci-fi (newuniversal is my absolute favorite, if not the best, example of modern SF in the comics medium right now, and it's a friggin' Marvel book), but I just can't jive with that name.  "Sleepless"?  I also can't say that I've been wowed by any of the stuff he's been putting out on Avatar recently.  Even Black Gas and that has zombies in it.
Can someone please send me a still or screen capture of Rich Johnston as a zombie from Shaun of the Dead?  I've rewatched my DVD of it maybe 6 times this past weekend, constantly pausing it every time I see a zombie with long hair and/or a beard.  Alternately, Chris Martin as an evil creature of the undead is incredibly ironic to me.  Have I mentioned that I can't stand Coldplay?
That's all you get.  I'm going back to work.  If I feel like it, I'll blog about the books I got.

Another Quick Note on Science Fiction

2007-04-04T13:14:00.001-05:00

(because it relates to comics, how?)

Today I read a blog post about somebody claiming to have invented the Sci-Fi sub-genre of "heliumpunk".  Now, seriously.  Why?  Do we really need more sci-fi anthologies that include the world "punk" in the title? To be honest, the whole post pretty much drips of conceit, and that is possibly the most off-putting thing about it, but it's not the only one.

Listen to this:

Since I "invented" Heliumpunk, I feel authoritative enough to define it: "A future or near-future setting where anachronistic and obsolete technology is given a new lease on life, not just because it is cool, but for plausible reasons within the setting."

Honestly, the only thing that seems to differ between "heliumpunk" and (sci-fi's flavor of the year) steampunk seems to be the fact that "heliumpunk" is set in the future, while steampunk is set in an alternative past.

Don't believe me?

Listen to this:

This setting begs to have air pirates who are after your helium, flying around on crude gliders with harpoon guns and futuristic goggles.

Or this:

BSG uses technology that is old from its own perspective, not from the perspective of the viewer. Heliumpunk uses tech that is outmoded even by today's standards and gives it new life.

And this:

A novel with polearm-wielding Zeppelin pilots flying over the Arctic whilst being pursued by multinational Helium conglomerates.

The air-goggles thing really got me.  I mean, yes, air-goggles are cool.  I would even go so far as to describe them as sexy.  But what your discussing - the fashion, the fight scenes, the setting, the involved conversations about the pros and cons of fighting with polearms - this is all window dressing.  Is it possible to define an entire genre, or even sub-genre for that matter, with peripheries?

I understand, when it comes to speculative fiction, it's the speculation part of it that can be the most fun, and while that may work really really great for you and all yr D&D playmates, it doesn't write the goddamn story.  A story is more than plot and setting (which seems to be the only thing steampunk fans care to talk about these days). 

Think about it. 

Think about the great sci-fi novels that made you wet your pants with glee & imagination.  Think about what really gets you when you watch Firefly.  Is it the cheap visual tricks, or is it the characters?  What year was Concrete Island set in?  What was the dominant fashion of Farenheit 451?  Where were the sexy air-goggles in Time Out of Joint?

Even the direct predecessor of steampunk, my beloved cyberpunk, showed some interest in concepts beyond what weapons were used and what people wore.  It was used as window dressing mostly.  A way to make the ideas and concepts come alive as people, rather than notes on a piece of paper.  Granted, the whole concept of cyberspace was pure speculation (the fun part!) on the part of Gibson, but we have it now.  It's real life, it's in front of us, and it turned out to be a fucking waste of time. 

Bruce Sterling gives blogs 4 - 5 more years before they die off as all cultural fads do.  And he should know about fads - he was one of the "founders" of cyberpunk.

Doctor Who enthusiast and zinester Tat Wood describes steampunk, in his essay Disraeli Gears* describes the genre as a marketing category.  With good reason too.  The term "cyberpunk" was coined by Bruce Bethke as a marketing ploy to make his books more noticeable.  And honestly, that's all the term "steampunk" or any other derivative (concept + "punk" = subgenre) can make me think of.

Marketing.

Attempts to make money.

Now, I will never write off a piece of work simply because it is associated with a particular "movement" or genre, but please give it a rest.  I've already admitted that air-goggles are sexy...

...

...

...but not as sexy as vision-enhancing mirrored lenses surgically attached to your face.

Why Is Tonio So Excited?

2007-04-03T15:53:00.001-05:00

Well tomorrow is Wednesday, and aside from the fact that my comic store may have actually ordered the Spiderman Loves Mary Jane hardcover I inquired about last week...

BRAND NEW FREAKING MADMAN!!!

Don't just stand there!  Go!  Go buy it!  Go buy it now!

The Doctor

2007-04-01T17:46:00.001-05:00

I know I said I wouldn't bore the comic-book exclusive folks who read this blog with any of my meanderings on science fiction but...

I finally caved and picked up the first two seasons of the new Doctor Who series.  I'm pretty damn excited.  Up until now I've pretty much settled for catching whatever loose episodes I can on the Sci-Fi Channel or watching flash videos of clips on the internet.  But after having done that, I'm really glad I saved up the money and actually spent it on the DVD sets because, well, they're really nice looking DVD sets.  The box for the second season is even better looking than the first, with a nice holographic cover and some sweet illustrations and pictures on the insert (I like to refer to them as "liner notes"). 

One of the other reasons I'm particularly psyched about the second season is that, in the beginning, Christopher Eccleston was somewhat unconvincing as the Doctor for me.  He seemed to hard all the time.  Sure the Doctor could be an asshole a lot of the time, but I always saw him as a somewhat playful character and Eccleston failed in that department for me.  To be fair, the level of "play" he adds to the cast of Heroes has made him one of my new favorite characters on that show.

The fact that an actor like Eccleston can find success on two perofmances steeped so high in the Science Fiction genre is somewhat astonishing to me.  Hardcore Sci-Fi nerds, similar to comic book nerds, still hold a bit of resentment towards the mainstream public in spite of recent success in the genre.  I mean, comics and sci-fi never went away.  There was always Star Trek and there were of course the Justice League and X-Men cartoons, but on some level the prime-time viewing audience was not quite ready for a show like Battlestar Galactica or Heroes until now. The fact that both shows are doing so well is a boon for fans, but I feel that it creates a strange riff between supposed new-comers and those of us who have remained faithful.

I mean, at this point it really comes down to whether you mutter "frakkin' bitch" under your breath at work or "fraggin' bastich". It's a moot point, but still one still large enough to draw a thin line in the sand.

I honestly believe that if shows like Doctor Who and BSG had originally premiered on major networks like NBC or CBS, they would have done just as well as Heroes and Lost (yes, I choose to include Lost as part of the science fiction genre's oeuvre). I mean, at this point, BSG has probably done a better job of attracting new viewers than Lost has of keeping old viewers interested. And most West Wing fans I am friends with have already given up on Studio 60, while finding solace in the socio-political drama of BSG .

So, all that being said, I'm off to watch some TARDIS action. I will undoubtedly scare off any social interaction with my roommate or his little brother for the evening with my loud cries of "EXTERMINATE!", muffled only by my bedroom door. Oh, and if any of you are on the fence about purchasing the DVDs instead of just downloading episodes or watching them on Youtube, I give you three words:

SIMON MOTHERFUCKING PEGG

What Manga Should I Read?

2007-03-29T11:53:00.001-05:00

So about 11.5 years ago I spent an entire summer visiting family in the Phillippines. To this day I still tell stories about that trip. On this trip I spent a lot of time with my cousin Jim, who introduced me to Anime and Manga, which he was really into at that point (apparently his new obsession is the Dave Matthews Band, which I have yet to chastise him for). Most of the Manga he was reading was some of the very early Dark Horse books, published as floppies, like Gunsmith Cats, the original Ghost in the Shell book, and some of the Dirty Pair minis. My cousin Carlo, who was quite a bit older, had slightly more refined tastes in Manga Anime. As a Aikido master, he used to take frequent trips over to Japan and bring back some great Manga collections. I remember him introducing me to Gon, which I immediately fell in love with.

Anyway, 11.5 years later I am still a fan of manga. Probably not on the level of many other Manga/Anime fans here in the states, but I generally appreciate comics of all genres and formats, from all over the globe. With the giant Manga boom going on right now, it's kind of silly for me to not take advantage of its wide availability isn't it? The problem is, I've sort of out-grown a lot of the manga I used to read, and anything along those lines is probably not worth it for me.

So I propose a question: WHAT MANGA SHOULD I BE READING?

Here's the thing. I also really like Anime. Like really really like Anime. I don't cos-play, and I'm pretty terrible at figuring out what is "good" anime and what is "bad". But the few anime movies/series that I get into, I watch re-watch to a fanatic extent. I think I've broken all my Neon Genesis and Kemonozume discs from over-playing them. That being said, when it comes to Manga and their Anime counterparts, I generally prefer the anime versions. I know, I know. But I can only do so much to convince myself that the way I feel is horribly, horribly wrong (thank you Catholic upbringing!).

But I don't find that enjoying one version of a story is mutually exclusive to enjoying another version. For example, I stopped reading the Neon Genesis manga because it seriously read like a stunted version of the Anime. Same thing with the Cowboy Bebop manga. But, the Chobits manga started to diverge from the plot of anime about half-way through the story, enough to make it interesting in a completely different way than the anime was. That I appreciate.

So, again, if you are reading this, and you have a particular Manga that you are reading and think more people should try, please shoot me a comment or e-mail letting me know what you recommend. Keep in mind that I like pretentious comics, but I also really like cheesy and/or fun comics.

Why's Everybody Got to Hate? #1

2007-03-28T10:55:00.001-05:00

Why's everyone got to hate on the Supergirl movie? The Internet has been referencing it a lot lately (I'm not quite sure why), but it's constantly being referred to as "awful" or "embarrassing" or "better forgotten". As a kid, I actually really liked the movie.

Sure it doesn't stand up to the Superman movies, but neither do a lot of movies. I mean Batman Begins doesn't stand up to Memento, and Spiderman doesn't stand up to Evil Dead, so what's the fuss?

Can't we just celebrate Supergirl? I mean, if we can re appropriate and celebrate other terrible movies, can't we do this for Supergirl? I mean, it's not like it's as bad as the Supergirl comic book, and I'm sure it's not nearly as bad as the 300 movie was either.

I should probably be more excited, shouldn't I?

2007-03-28T10:05:00.001-05:00

It's Wednesday again. "Hump day" ; "King of the Week" ; "New Comic Book Day" ; etc. And yet, I can't help but feel a tiny bit of dread. Having had a really rough week, the prospect of having to go into a public place and interact with people doesn't always get me amped. It's the reason I've avoided going to the movies or going to any "parties" for two weeks. I've been sitting at home, watching movies and playing with my cats, and doing little else. All those nights that I promised myself I would go back and read some sweet comic books? Gone. All those nights that I promised I would blog or write a new column? Gone. Wednesday's general excitement? Gone?

Here's what's on my pull-list for today:

Batman #664
Crossing Midnight #5
Daredevil #95
Ultimate Spiderman #107

Now, these are all titles that I enjoy reading. Ultimate Spiderman, while having rarely actually bought the book in the past, I used to read in trade form at my parents' local library whenever I was home from school or whatever. And while Grant Morrison & Ed Brubaker are two of the creators putting out major super hero work that I consistently trust, I have to admit that I'm not that psyched about these books this week.

It begs the question, when are comics more than merely a source of entertainment? To me, all of these books, while perhaps having been executed well in their creation or being just straight-up entertaining and fun, may not prove to be all that important to my life. I have so much stuff to finish reading that will most definitely effect me beyond the 10 minutes that I spend reading it. Why do I bother with these books then?

I suppose it comes from a deep loyalty to the genre. But more than that, I think, there is always the off-chance that book like this will deeply effect me on a profound level. It happens every once in a while.

One of the other items that I'm actually really excited for is the Spiderman Loves Mary Jane hardcover, which includes all of the previous mini-series and the first few issues of the current series. This is a book that I can read & re-read and enjoy. And while the stories may not be that life-changing or deeply effective, they certainly are reusable entertainment. And sometimes entertainment can be profound on the simplest of levels like that.

But is Grant Morrison's Batman going to get re-read any time soon? I made the mistake of re-reading Brad Meltzer's Justice League of America, and it just killed any interest I had in the book. I am now not looking foward to the upcoming JLA/JSA cross-over 'cos now I feel that in order to follow the story I will have to buy books that I'm not necessarily interested in anymore.

And while I have probably been enjoying Brubaker's Daredevil run more and more as time goes on, the last issue would have provided a really good stopping point for the book, but very little story potential. Brubaker certainly hasn't killed off the last few years of Daredevil's story, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like there's anywhere new that he can take it.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just exhausted from all the non-comic related stuff going on that I'm having trouble concentrating. I'll give these books a try. At the very least, I'll build up my credit at Cosmic Comics, so I can actually buy the Spiderman Loves Mary Jane hardcover.

Quick Note on Marvel Solicitations

2007-03-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've been super busy and have been barely blogging. AND I know that the Marvel solicits post I sent out was never actually uploaded to the blog and I should have re-posted/re-wrote it right then & there so that all my funny, funny jokes were still fresh & relevant. But you know what?

...So is your face.

Whatever. There was one cover though, that I came across again, that I just could not let go. Eli has already posted what he thought was the most perfect cover of the June '07 solicits. Here is mine:

Do you think the speculators will jump on this book too? I mean, it might be the best cover to come out of Cap's death. If that weren't enough...

REIGN OF THE CAPTAIN AMERICAS!

dots for eyes.

2007-03-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

i just stumbled onto dots for eyes
, the comic blog of maris wicks. i've seen wicks's work before, a bit, but what caught me this time was comic #48 of her attempt at the '100 themes' project (about which i know as much as you), check it out.

52 46

2007-03-24T02:55:00.001-05:00

Finally read new issue of 52. Did anyone else catch the one panel
reference to the upcoming story in Countdown? Proving that one
directly leads into the other. Could be done well, but will most
likely be dissapointing.
In other news happy birthday to Eli. I'm going to try to sleep
now after two day without. More when I decide I can wake up.

--
sent via mobile device...

peter david made me do it.

2007-03-22T16:39:00.000-05:00

i was never one for favorites. i like the things i like, and i dislike things i dislike, but favorites are so transitory that they never made sense to me. i was the kid whose favorite colors were "red! and green! oh, and blue!"

but, currently, and with ease, x-factor is my favorite superhero comic. and peter david has asked his readership for a favor, double the sales in a month. so i'm doing my part, however small.

BUY X-FACTOR.

read it. every month. don't wait for the trade. don't download it off the internet. buy it.

there is no book out there like this one. it's tight in all the right ways. it even manages to be totally connected to marvel's continuity without it fucking the whole book up. i mean the fact that one of the key players has her origins (however vaguely) in house of m and that pietro maximoff (quicksilver), who could easily be the lynch-pin to every major mutant story for the foreseeable future, hangs around without either of those things bogging the book down is amazing. (you definitely don't need to read house of m to read this book, in fact, don't, it sucks.) and it's pretty much the only marvel comic i can think of that tied itself into civil war without totally disrupting the narrative flow of the series. it seems like any obstacle you through in peter david's path he just turns into another twist in the road.
and you know why?
because peter david knows how to write a comic book. better than you. and better than 95% of the industry. he knows how to pace each issue. he knows how to pace whole arcs. and he knows how to write them so they flow together. no issue of x-factor is an awkward fit with the rest. i've reread the series a few times, and i've never been disappointed. even as the storylines grow and development and drop away and build up, it always works. there's no vacillation between good issues and awesome issues. the quality is so consistently high that the only issue that is of any lower quality is still a great fucking comic book.
i've heard complaints about the art in x-factor. (it doesn't help that this month's issue has the weakest yet, though it's still better than a michael turner or a jim lee.) i disagree with most of the complaints, except those that bemoan the lack of a consistent artist for any length of time. which is an impediment, but david and editor andy schmidt seem to know just which artists to pick. and they're good, the overall tone rarely changes. and while none of them are banner names (though ryan sook should be), they are share common trait, their characters emote. and not in the "open mouth = shock" kind of crap. i mean that i know the pain in the characters eyes. there are a few moments of joy in this book that made me have a better day. in fact, this book makes all my days better.
i could easily go into how great and well-defined the characters are, or how they have actual moral dilemmas and solve them in realistic and human ways, or how there are fairly sweeping changes that seem perfectly reasonable (a real achievement in superhero comics), or any of the other things that make x-factor the best superhero comic being published right now, but i'm finished. i've done my part. everything about this book is good. what more can i say?

go out. buy the trades. get the back issues. buy the MADROX miniseries that preceded the series. but most of all, buy issue 18. buy two copies. because peter david told me to tell you.

Manga Kissa 10 - Rmail

2007-03-22T12:20:00.001-05:00

Welcome to Mangka Kissa 10's Website We are located at Slim Fashion School Bldg. Ground Floor Pasong Tamo Makati City

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Reactions: DC Solicits for June '07

2007-03-21T16:06:00.001-05:00

I tried to do this earlier with the Marvel solicitations for June '07, but of course something happened and I lost the post. But let me assure you, it was pretty damn funny. I will try to re-post it again later on.

...onwards...

DC had surprising number of solicitations that peaked my interest. A lot of it has to do with some genuinely good cover art, in my opinion, but I often wonder how much of that is linked to my personal investment with some of the characters and creators involved...

This cover I liked a lot. I thought Williams does a pretty good job of mimicking the silver-age aesthetic of the old Batman books, without doing so too flamboiantly. The sparse use of color I thought was quite effective as well. Again, I can't help but wonder if I'm being a bit biased here, simply because I have been wanting to see Williams on another Batman book really really really bad.

Similarly, this image also peaked my interest. Tim Drake has probably been one of my favorite characters since I was a young kid, but I have actually not been loving Beechem's run on the book. It's not bad, it's just not great. Still, the book has been doing a fairly decent job on the covers lately. Making the books visually appealing in a way that is obscure enough to entice someone who has not been following the storyline (or even current continuity for that matter), as well as someone who has an idea of what's going to happen next.

Both of these covers show enough to tease out what the story might possibly be about (without having to read the actual text solicitation) to give a person, who may already show some interest in reading the book, a push in that direction. Something like Kurt Busiek's Superman or Judd Winnick's Green Arrow, however,give you all the details you need (assuming you can recognize Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary) to get psyched about the story.

Now, the cover to Marc Guggenheim's Flash works on a level that will most likely appeal to current fans. The impact and weight of the Tony Daniels image, only works on an emotional level, and would therefore require some previous investment in the character. Of course, DC tells us this is merely a teaser image, but for existing fans, this level of mystery (when composed well enough) can work just as well. Both DC Marvel bank on this with their campaigns of secrecy disinformation.

Now, Tony Harris' cover to Ex Machina is a perfect example of this. So good in fact that it could possibly bring in new readers to the series. Too bad that Harris chose to save a cover this powerful to the finale of the story arc. This cover in particular gets me excited simply because, while I consistently love Harris' work on the series, his dazzling cover design has been somewhat lacking in that extra "oomph" he usually delivers. Something like this is just so powerful that I don't have to know what the story inside is like. All I need to know is that the story inside is on the same level as this cover. Being a regular reader of the series, I can safely assume it is, but if I were not, it would have to take a bit more to convince me that this book was worth jumping on at this issue.

Contrastly, this is what you guys get for complaining about Superman crying too much - a cover that does absolutely nothing for me. It doesn't even have Superman punching Robotman's head off. World War Kent.

Another reason I love going through the DC solicitations each month is because they like to offer up a bunch of sweet reprints and collections. While Marvel certainly offers up its fair share of reprint collections, their solicitations generally don't involve awesome cover images (i.e. no cover for the Essential Silver Surfer collection coming out in June). So for your viewing pleasure (and mine, obviously) here are a series of "Bams":

BAM!

BAM!!

BAM!!!

BAM!!!!

BAM!!!!!

Boing Boing: Chris Ware animation for The American Life TV show - Rmail

2007-03-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

This cartoon is about schoolkids who started making fake video cameras out of card board boxes and toilet paper tubes to "film" incidents around the schoolyard. Because they had these phony cameras to hide behind, they distanced themselves from each other

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2007-03-15T20:09:00.001-05:00

CBR has pictures of artist JOCK's studio that look very nice. After looking at these pictures, Eli I had a discussion about the previous installments of this CBR series, and how most artists' studios don't look like real art studios to us. They look hardly lived in, barely used, and generally covered in action figures, supposedly reference material.

This is what happens when mainstream comic companies encourage artists to draw from action figures.

Brad Meltzer (co-author of the upcoming JLA/JSA cross over event) points out that this was done after they asked for a breast reduction on Power Girl's appearance.

Images via Paperghost & THE BEAT

the confession (i didn't do it.)

2007-03-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

first things first, alex maleev makes beautiful art. just amazing. he manages to make me stare at pages of tony stark crying still wearing most of his armor, sitting in a room alone more exciting than everything jim lee has done this year. (i'm should warn the beter living audience, i hate
jim lee and love alex maleev. i think they are opposing forces, and the jim lee side has no artistic merit. so there. sorry.)
moving on from the art (which i can't say enough good about, maleev just gets better and better),
the first half of this book is fantastic, iron man is a real person, with a real history, a real personality, and an actual reason to do what he does. it's a pleasure to read. and then, on top of that, we get the first true (or as close as possible) proof of steve rogers's death. and it's great.
but then we move on to the "two days earlier" section and cap and iron man go back to being the terrible crap they've been for months. it's sad. and it takes away from the impact of the first half. try reading this book backwards. read the second section, and then the first. it works so much better. so much more impact. and then the final page of the iron man section would be the thing you're left with instead of steve rogers in a cell with an undeserving moral victory and a snide comment.

right. a general opinion about the week later.

slg_news: Reminder: Comic Book Writing Workshop - Rmail

2007-03-15T14:22:00.001-05:00

Landry Walker, writer of Little Gloomy and co-writer of Tron, and I will be conducting a comic writing workshop on Saturday, April 14th! You can sign up now; there is still space available! We will be discussing the fundamentals of comics writing, such as

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New Avengers #28 (Quick Review)

2007-03-15T12:31:00.001-05:00

Since Eli has already covered last week's Mighty Avengers, I thought I'd take a stab at the newest issue of Brian Bendis' New Avengers or "(Secret) Avengers" as I like to refer to them.

Let me start off by saying that Brian Bendis is the writer that made the Avengers make sense to me. As a primarily DC oriented super hero fan, and havin been burned by the quality of books Marvel had been putting out by the mid-to-late 90s, I really didn't care to give most of Bendis' work a try. However, books like Ultimate Spiderman and Daredevil were among some of the few Marvel books I would pull regularly. Anyway, it was when I read Bendis' opus (IMO) Alias that I began to change my mind about the current state of the Marvel Universe. Bendis brought decades worth of forgotten history to the foreground with this book, and made it all fresh and exciting (even if I was reading it several years after the fact). That being said, I still thought the first few issues of his New Avengers book were a bit hit or miss for me.

Enter Civil War. I think of all the writers working on big titles at Marvel, Bendis was the one who took their flagship title to the next level, and thus handled the whole event in the best manner possible.

Most of my criticism of Bendis' New Avengers seemed to be centered around the usual troubles that many writers have dealing with a larger cast. Unlike books like Alias or Daredevil, or even The Pulse, which all handled the large cast of the entire Marvel Universe quite well, Bendis didn't have a titular or protagonist character to constantly fall back on. With New Avengers, Bendis was given the tough task of having to make b-list characters like Luke Cage and Spiderwoman seem as important and irreplaceable as Iron Man or Captain America. It wasn't until the Civil tie-in arc that Bendis was able to give each character at least an issue of face time, thus letting us get to know the characters on a more intimate and relateable level.

Anyway, I liked this issue of New Avengers, which focused on the Avengers who chose to not register with the American government. Unlike, Mighty Avengers, the line-up for this team seems so much more organic than the tactically chosen line-up for Iron Man's government sanctioned Avengers. This generally yields better chemistry than on either Mighty Avengers or even the previous line-up featured on the pre-Civil War New Avengers title.

Unlike before, this line-up features all heavy hitters, but no "icons" (I've already discussed how I feel that "iconic" super heroes seem antithetical to me in the context of the Marvel Universe) like Cap or Iron Man, who always gave the generally buoyant nature of the teams chemistry an added weight. In the post-Civil War Marvel Universe, the weight is already out there. It is nice to see a group of super heroes acting less like a military unit, and more like a band of brothers.

I was originally a bit wary of the book originally, given that I have absolutely loved Lenil Yu's artwork in the past (especially his collaborations with Gerry Alanguilan), but was still on the fence about the new non-inked method utilized in this book. While the intense clarity of Yu's previous work seems gone, it is replaced by a certain ethereal quality that works well with the lighter dynamic of this team.

And that seems to be the big thing. This book, and even Mighty Avengers to a certain extent, seem far more fun than prior to Civil War. It's as if the dire grimness that has characterized so much of Bendis' major Marvel works (Avengers: Disassembled, House of M, Daredevil) has finally given to the latent humor constantly peaking behind the corner. The Mammet-esque "Wait...What?" moments have now formally been replaced by actual punchlines, and referential continuity jokes have been replaced by visual gags (which Yu helps pull off quite well).

With Captain America "dying" in his own book, and Ellis' constant need to exploit the criminal nature of his characters in Thunderbolts, it seems that Brian Bendis' new Avengers titles, as well as Matt Fraction's Punisher War Journal title seem to be picking up the slack of the now finished Nextwave book, by shining some light on the supposedly dark Marvel Universe post-Civil War. New Avengers is everything that I expect from an in-continuity super hero book - fun, fun, fun.

* * * * * * * * *

NOTE: I haven't finished reading all the books that came out this previous week, but there are few worth talking about. Unfortunately, this week seems to be the best week during BAM's month long Shohei Immamur retrospective. So that being said, I probably won't be touching reviews until this Saturday, while my girlfriend is off doing a Manhattan-wide "pub crawl" in celebration of St. Patrick.

Manga Artists File Lawsuit Against Manga Download Site - Anime News Network - Rmail

2007-03-15T10:00:00.001-05:00

On March 14th, a group of 11 manga creators filed a lawsuit with the district court in Tokyo against a webpage hosting company and two people involved with a website that the suit alleges "distributed works (manga) on the website without permission." The

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Your Warren Ellis Moment of the Day

2007-03-15T09:50:00.001-05:00

So over on Comic Book Resources, Arune Singh talkto Warren Ellis about his upcoming political super hero epic, Black Summer, which Rich Johnston has slowly been leaking info about on his Lying in the Gutters column (whew, that's a lot of links to the same page in one paragraph). Since then Ellis, the one man hype-machine, has been posting info on the book on his website and on his message board.

Now, I have to admit that I'm pretty wary of this book. I love a lot of Ellis' work, but so much of it falls flat for me. He's certainly one of the more interesting "idea-men" in comics today, but it often seems like the level of craft that he pours into his books generally depends on his level of interest in exploring the subject matter at any given time. He seems to do his best work when he has much fewer distractions on his plate. His better known creator-owned work Transmetropolitan, Planetary, and Desolation Jones are among some of his best, but people often forget how prolific he really is, and tend to dismiss the crap that the occasionally puts out.

So why should I check out Black Summer?

Let's ask Ellis:

On Character Motivation

He's been asking himself the question that informs the book: where do you draw the line? If you're totally committed to the idea of covering your face and taking on a fake name and standing outside the law in order to fight for justice where do you stop? Crime pervades society. We're all aware of corporations that behave in a criminal manner. Is that as far as you go?

Wait. You know the 90s are over right? We don't need to deconstruct super heroes anymore. Now we need to do continuity laden (or reference laden) homages with nothing but reverence. Oh and it wouldn't hurt if you included some Mammet-esque dialog and pregnant pauses.

On the Conceptual Process

"William
and I have an easy, longtime friendship and we do this a lot," revealed
Ellis. "And he bet me I couldn't come up with a high-concept superhero
'event' book that naturally featured all new characters and ideas, but
also hit some of the notes of a standard Big Two event program."

Couldn't you just finish the last issue of Planetary?

On Inspiration

So
when this hit me and I'm pretty sure I was standing in my garden at
three in the morning with a glass of whisky, smoking furiously and
swearing at the sky, reduced to waiting for the thunderbolt to hit it
spoke to me not only of the reasons why someone might put on a helmet
and find justice their own way, but also why we read these myths of
social justice ourselves.

Oh.... That's why you weren't working on the final issue of Planetary.

On the Jungian Dichotomy

Half
the potential audience is going to see John Horus as the bad guy, and
that's not without merit. Half the audience is going to see him as the
Good Guy, and I can see where they're coming from too. I take no public
position.I'm writing it from both angles at once and letting people
make up their own minds.

So it's like Civil War, except...no one will buy it. Explosions are pretty.

On The Future

All
these things are cyclical. And I'm not sure you can characterize DC's
current output like that, they seem really focused on classic
broad-sweep superheroics right now. It comes down, I think, to what I
said before: what are the questions left to ask? And a lot of the
questions left to ask are sociopolitical. It's an aspect of these
decadent days we find ourselves in. Pigs with two heads are abroad in
the land. The British military is trying to loft a communications
satellite grid called Skynet. These are the End Times.

Wow. "Skynet"?! That's so badly cyberpunk it doesn't even come out the William Gibson story - it comes from the adaptation.

Honestly, I still love so much of Warren Ellis' work, but he really needs to stop letting people talk him into doing any work remotely related to super heroes anymore. And the fact that this is another book that comes out of one of his bets with William Chrstensen leaves me with little hope. I mean, did anyone else read Wolfskin? There was a reason Ellis had to stop working on it. It was awful. It made me dumber just by reading it. I can only imagine what it did to Ellis, who was writing it.

It's been a while since he's done anything that's truly blown my mind the way Transmet or Planetary did, but maybe I'm just too far along for that stuff to effect me the same way. Desolation Jones could possibly be his next great work if Marvel would stop asking him to write books that mock their entire companies publishing line.

Although, I have been really enjoying newuniversal.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog - Rmail

2007-03-14T17:30:00.001-05:00

Archive supporter, Kent Butterworth brought us a few original Toth drawings to digitize, and I've supplemented them with some xeroxes belonging to the family of Carlo Vinci.

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52.

2007-03-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

yet another issue of fifty-two that focuses almost exclusively on a single story and, yet, manages to change locations about twenty-five times in it's twenty-two pages. an enjoyable read. these last few weeks are really making the previous months worth it. but, having given the book a positive comment, i've also been feeling like this book is light. it's thin. there's so much going on that nothing feels important. i didn't really give a shit that the black marvel family died and i didn't care that it fueled black adam's rage. just didn't care. but i liked watching him do it. (looking at him do it?)
fifty-two reads like comics from my eighties youth (and this issue looks like one). the only problem with this is that i've grown, and comics have too, since that point. i'm not saying there's no place for stories like this (just look at the brave and the bold, older school, but fun), but the big-deal-everyone's-watching-event book seems like a better place to push for the future. though now that i've articulated that, i realize what a poor business decision i'm suggesting.
either way, i've enjoyed fifty-two up until this point, ignoring that lull in the teens, and hope for the best in it's ending (which, in a story like this, is actually hoping for the worst. i mean, look how much death there's been already.), but i still feel like it's fluff and nothing more. mmm, fluff.

Quick Post About Nothing in Particular

2007-03-14T14:49:00.001-05:00

Is it wrong of me to say that David Mazzuchelli is the greatest Daredevil artist? According to the new issue of Backissue, it's not.

Newsarama has a snippet Philippe Cordier's new article showcasing some of the "ungsung heroes" who worked on the book.

This particular snippet talks about some of the great artists who worked on the book during Frank Miller's tenure as writer, including Klaus Janson, David Mazzucchelli, and John Romita, Jr.

In a completely unrelated note, the Daily Crosshatch uncovered this:

That's right kids, the cover to Tony Millionaire's upcoming Maakies collection due out this May.

Apparently the Cross Hatch Kids want you to keep it a secret so... SHHHHHH!

Tetsubo Productions - Wherein I Satisfy A Request - Rmail

2007-03-14T11:51:00.001-05:00

But Cap just sits there and takes Sally's stupid crap, and that bothered me, and I know it's a bit late to the party and the new big thing now is making fun of Captain America getting shot to death like a bitch. But anyway, here are two redone pages which

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Michael May on Invincible

2007-03-14T10:11:00.001-05:00

Michael May over at Blog@Newsarama, has a nice little piece about the nature of "jumping in" on continuity heavy super hero books, and how it's much less of a turn off than you'd think. He very quickly goes through a chunk of the Image super hero books currently out, including one of my favorites - Invincible:

Like Noble Causes, Invincible has a lot of unanswered questions that I need answers to. I jumped in on issue #38. So far, there’s a giant, orange, one-eyed alien who’s just found out that another character is from the same race as Invincible and wants to use our hero to start a rebellion against the other members of their race. There’s another guy who’s just learned that he’s actually more robot than human. Invincible’s girlfriend is apparently being tempted to fall for another guy and her friends are encouraging her in that direction. (It’s the old, My Secret Identity is Killing My Personal Life scenario, but Kirkman and Ryan Ottley present it in a way that makes you care just as much as you ever did about Peter Parker’s similar problems.)

There’s the Lizard League, a gang of reptile-themed bad guys who are struggling to find a leader right now. There’s Invincible’s purple, adopted brother who seems to have mysterious origins but is soaking up information at an incredible rate. And there’s the human guy in the big spaceship with all the little brain-octopi swarming around and attached to him. Who is he and why is heading towards Earth? Don’t know. Who are the Guardians of the Globe and what are all their powers and personalities? No clue. Who is Atom Eve and why is Invincible smooching her when he says he’s in love with his girlfriend? Couldn’t tell you. Yet.

Thanks to Eli, I've been reading Invincible for a few years now. The quality of the book, while always consistently tight, waxes and wanes for me. After a certain point, I seemed to have lost my enthusiasm for the story, but my enthusiasm of the characters kept me going. There were moments where my excitement for the book would peak again, but only to fall back to the inevitable low it was before.

This all changed with issue #38.

It was a moment we've all been waiting for.

Anyway, I love Invincible. It is one of the most fun super hero comics out there right now. And the way Michael May describes it, only reminds me how weird and fun the book is. After having followed the title for a few years now, I seemed to have forgotten that part. That Invincible is just supposed to be the funnest super hero comic around...

Pi Day!!

2007-03-14T09:35:00.001-05:00

Oh yeh, and in a non-comics related note, MangaBlog reminded me that today is "Pi Day"! March 14 = 3.14. Get it?

World Literature...TODAY!

2007-03-14T09:31:00.001-05:00

Eddie Campbell has a nice piece in the new issue of World Literature Today about the term "graphic novel" (always in quotes).

There is apparently also a Mickey Spilane tribue (WTF?) and a sweet cover by Gabriel Ba and an interview with both Ba and Fabian Moon.

Sections of the magazine are available online in .pdf format. Do the clicky-clicky on the linky-linky above.

("mighty avengers #1.")

2007-03-14T04:36:00.000-05:00

i remember the day the thought balloon died. well, not the day, but the general time when i said "hey, i haven't seen a thought balloon in a while." and i was disappointed. i like thought balloons. i find them appealing as a means to remove comic books from other visual media. it brings comics closer to the novel, but in a more fluid and dramatic way, depending on the class of writer and artist, of course. also, i like how they look like clouds.

sadly, the much ballyhooed return of thought balloons to mainstream comics last week was somewhat disappointing. it wasn't that they were used poorly, in fact i felt there were often clever concepts the art would have difficulty explaining (though that cho can do little wrong, providing for his awkward fan-boy amazon thing), but because they seemed like an exercise. like a test. kirkman bet bendis a whole run of rom the space knight that he couldn't use thought balloons and bendis did the smart thing and took him up on it. because rom is awesome.

it's too quick. he writes thoughts like he writes his dialogue. snappy. why be so clever in your own head? a distinction in tone between the two would have tightened the rhythm a little. it would have been pleasant. and on top of that. bendis almost exclusively uses these short thoughts to directly oppose the spoken words. i get it. clever. we don't always say what we think. move on.

of course, i like bendis's writing on the whole, i think most complaints about his snappy patter are missing the point. these are stories about people flying and fighting for "what's right," why should they sound like real people talking? but when you throw thoughts in like witty retorts, it kind of confuses things. of course, i will discount the possibility that i am some kind of dinosaur and would like all my balloons to say "but that's lois lane, my girlfriend in my alter ego as clark kent. how can that be?" and i will eventually evolve. we'll see.

now, having said this, my overall opinion of the book is high. i enjoyed it. old fashion slam bang. the marvel equivalent to the brilliant work johns and eaglesham are doing once again with the justice society. let's just hope that new avengers isn't bendis's answer to meltzer's jla. (sorry, tonio.)

The Holy Consumption of Chicago - Rmail

2007-03-13T22:49:00.000-05:00

Website for Jeffrey Brown, John Hankieicz, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen

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Forget the Cap #25 mark-up scandals

2007-03-13T15:52:00.000-05:00

Ok. So there are no copies of Vertigo's Rogan Gosh trade paperback on Amazon.com, but there is this:

That's right folks Rogan Josh.

Priced at $101.17, used.

I suppose this is better than Rick Veitch's Question mini-series, which never even got to see trade paperback format, even though he's asked them to reprint it.

Books I'm Really Really Looking Foward To...

2007-03-13T15:47:00.001-05:00

Nick Bertozzi's Salon

Eddie Campbell's The Black Diamond Detective Agency

Ivan Brunetti's Misery Loves Comedy

Gail Simone's The All New Atom Vol. 1: My Life in Miniature

Frank Miller and 300's Assault on the Gay Past - Rmail

2007-03-13T14:14:00.001-05:00

The trauma turns the homophobe gay, and he is then transformed into a homophobic version of Robocop with a head that looks like a giant penis. Miller's heart is in the right place, but using such blundering humor simply seems immature.

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Miller's Ubiquitous Struggle

2007-03-13T09:32:00.001-05:00

...these are the dichotomies that echo precisely that central and
extremely persistent anxiety about gender—one that paints masculinity
not as a birthright or even as an achievement, but as an endless
narrative of constant struggle.

Amanda Andrade has a pretty good review of 300 over at Stylus Magazine. She compares the original Miller text with Snyder's adaptation, albeit a muddy, mushy kind of comparison where it's hard to tell from Andrade's mild disdain which is which, and draws on some interesting thematic conclusions in Miller's work.

It raises an interesting point. After a certain point in my life, I kind of gave up on Miller's creator owned work, merely because I no longer felt any particular attachment to his themes of men and women hardened by the brutality and unfairness of life to the point of visually stunning graphic violence and awkward, shadowy sex acts. I was done with the hyper-machismo, even from an "ironic", or at least self-aware perspective. But Andrade's review of the film points to Miller's use of meta-masculinity as an expression of personal struggle, and the wrestling of conflicted ideals of gender. Of course, with Miller, the icon of hard masculinity always wins out, but it's still an interesting point.

Perhaps the best part of the article, however, is the one-sentence synopsis given in Stylus' RSS feed: "It's hard to spell 'Homo eroticism' without 'Heroism'."

Genius.

asap - story - Rmail

2007-03-13T09:17:00.001-05:00

Comic timing Meet an indie comics collective that feeds off raw passion, idiosyncratic talent and the viral nature of the blogosphere.

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Tom Breevort on the Death of Captain America

2007-03-12T16:07:00.001-05:00

And this points out how powerful and beloved these characters have become as cultural icons, the main ones at least. And no matter what else you think, Cap’s death has mobilized an entire strata of the public to take a second look at our field, much as the DARK TOWER comic book did, much as Spider-Man’s unmasking did. It’s been a good year for raising awareness of our medium and the different kinds of stories you can tell in comic book form. It’s certainly driven a lot more people into comic shops and bookstores looking for the stuff, and that gives us all an excellent opportunity to hook at least some of them, and turn them into regular readers of one variety or another.

Seriously?

Seriously?

"It’s been a good year for raising awareness of our medium and the different kinds of stories you can tell in comic book form," because Alison Blechdel and Chris Ware have already tried that with such tawdry publications as Time Magazine (2006's Book of the Year) and The New York Times (regular cartooning gig for Sunday's magazine). No, Marvel Entertainment (in conjunction with Stephen King) did that with the page one of the friggin' Daily News.

Seriously.

Seriously.

You know, in my attempt to be ever-positive about the comics medium I was trying to not touch this Captain America story. I mean, we all know he's going to come back (I'm actually hoping against it), and it's going to turn into a show-down of ideals when Steve Rogers has to face off against either Frank Castle (the usurper) or the recently RESSURECTED Bucky Barnes (the inheritor), because what Captain America stands of is supposed to be timeless, not topical.

That is why Captain America has never truly fit into the Marvel Universe to the degree that a hero like Spiderman or even Wolverine does. Because Marvel, from day one, has been all about being "topical" as opposed to simply iconic. And that's fine. That's what they do. They remain topical (with scenes of Doctor Doom crying - who, by the way, likes to start zombie wars even more than Robert Kirkman does). Sure, Spiderman is iconic at this point, but his icon status has only arisen out of his topical character.

But Captain America is not topical. He's iconic. He's a walking flag! Since Stan Lee first brought him BACK FROM THE DEAD in the Avengers, Marvel has never ceased to continue trying to diminish the icon status of Captain America, in an effort to make him more topical. At its best it made the character even more iconic, and at its worst just seems cheap (to be fair, the storyline leading up to that "worst" link should also be included in the "best" pile).

So it irks me when people like CNN try to make this "event" into something that its no: an event! It's a comic book character splayed out on the page! Have we not scene that before? It's a marketing ploy! Sure, in the hands of a capable and writer, it could generate a really really good story, and I'm sure Brubaker will definitely deliver. But don't try to say that this is symbolism or that this is somehow bigger than the four colored world it inhabits.

Fiction is one of the most powerful tools in any artists' arsenal. Stunts like this are almost an abuse of power.

So, if you really care about the medium of comics, if you really care about the art form of comics and the integrity of fiction, please, please, please, don't listen to Tom Breevort or Joe Quesada about how important this "event" is. Their job is to get you to buy comics, and they're great at it.

Just know that they are not enriching your lives with this junk.

Just know that they are not making you a better person in any way.

They are teaching you nothing.

They are giving you nothing.

Their main concern is drive a lot more people into comic shops and bookstores so they can sell more of their maudlin spandex-fixated soap opera tales.

NOTE: I AM A FAN OF SUPERHERO COMICS. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH READING SUPER HERO COMICS, AS LONG AS YOU ARE AWARE OF WHAT THEY TRULY ARE, AND DON'T PRETEND THAT THEY ARE SOMETHING MORE, LIKE MR. BREEVORT HAS INSISTED ON DOING.

P.S. I'm a bit pissed off...

300 Breaks Boxoffice for March ... I still barely care.

2007-03-12T13:27:00.001-05:00

300 is the inverse of Cap #25 — everyone knew it was coming for a year, and things still didn’t go according to plan. Maybe we’re wrong in our speculation, and there are thousands of copies available everywhere. Maybe everything has gone much smoother than the ICv2 story indicates. 300 will surely be one of the best selling graphic novels of the year when all is said and done, but 15,000 copies for the next two months just doesn’t sounds like great planning.

This weekend my girlfriend went on a seemingly romantic date - movie dinner. The only two problems?

The giant lunch we ate right before the movie ensured that we would not be eating any more food for quite some time
My girlfriend's idea of a "romantic" movie turned out to be 300

Now in all fairness, I was just as curious as my girlfriend was to see what a CGI-heavy adaptation of naked muscle dudes with spears would look like, but I was kind of surprised that she had even show any interest in going in the first place (she's usually pretty immune to the hype machine). Plus, it was the first screening available when we showed up to the theater.

What followed was an over crowded theater full of loud boys in baseball caps and gold chains all cheering and clapping to the 21st Century equivalent of a Russ Meyers' movie. The fact that everyone and their mother seems to be talking about how "amazing" this film is, was almost as baffling to me at the time as Zack Snyder's depiction of homosexuals and Asians.

You can't really tell, from watching the film, whether Synder's intention was to lampoon the Persian empire itself, by depicting it as a decadent culture full of deformed homosexuals and demons, or if he was instead lampooning the Spartans' xenophobic perspective on the Persian empire. The weightiness of Miller's figures, was sabotaged by the acting, making even the most dramatic seems appear trite. And where Miller's stylized characters give the book a bit more "oomph" in the already rich visuals department, Snyder's portrayals of the same characters just came of as...well, offensive.

Now, to be clear, I was already not that big a fan of the original book. I find myself to be of mixed emotions regarding a lot of Miller's work. Still, I concede the importance of a book like 300 existing, and would implore everyone who had seen the movie, or who was planning on seeing the movie, to read the actual book at some point. Simply because it's a solid piece of comic story, and there are much worse movies being made from weaker examples of what the medium has to offer.

Even before I turned on my computer this morning to read the various headlines about how the movie had been a box office smash, I could tell from the growing enthusiasm passion of the crowd (NYC movie goers are some of the most infectiously enthusiastic, I've found), that this movie was a resounding success. Regardless of how I felt about the movie personally, it could only mean good things for Frank Miller and Dark Horse.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Heidi McDonald reporting on the shortage of copies of the book available to retailers following the film's premiere weekend. Perhaps part of the reason I'm shocked is because I tend to frequent some pretty competent comic shops, who tend to handle big opportunities like this fairly well. At my current favorite shop, recent printings of the 300 book have been on display for months now. When Hellboy came out, I remember my old comic shop in NJ did fairly well with it, moving so many copies of the various trade paperbacks that it made your head spin. Even my local library at the time got in on the action, seeing an expansion of their Hellboy collection in the Graphic Novels section just to meet the demand from young teenage readers looking to borrow it.

Heidi points out that there had been no marketing plan on the part of either Dark Horse or Warner Brothers to connect the 300 film and the 300 comic book, other than sticking Frank Miller's name above the title. But even that, in my opinion, is expecting a bit too much of the uninformed/uninitiated movie going crowd who probably don't really care about Miller's comic work outside of the context of the movie they enjoyed.

For the few percentage of people who do care to check out the source material (and considering the numbers that the film pulled in this weekend, is till a lot of people) there is unfortunately nothing, save for the measly 15,000 copies Diamond has just received and will ship to retailers accordingly. This obviously hurts retailers the most, since in the aftermath of the movie's premiere, people will undoubtedly go to their local comic shop to find a comic book, only to find that it is no longer in stock. I have a feeling the book store market will benefit most from this, when the flashy cover art of the book has the ability to catch a casual shopper's eye. But for those who could benefit the most from people actually seeking out the book? Well, you're apparently shit out of luck.

My only point of contention with Ms. McDonald's post is that I don't think that Dark Horse needed to print an explicit movie tie-in for this particular story. 300 works extremely well as a self-contained story (thus works well as a movie adaptation), and seeing as to how Snyder worked so hard to capture so much of the books original flare, isn't that hard to understand or jump on to for uninitiated readers. There's no ongoing continuity issues or need to recap like in the Spiderman or Batman movie franchises. And unlike Heidi's excellent example, V for Vendetta, the 300 movie actually resembles the source material.

While a smaller amount of product to push or tie-in with the movies success may not appeal in business terms to retailers or publishers, I would argue that it is better for the casual reader in the long run. And what's good for the reader, can only serve to be good for the Graphic Novel industry. It's a chance to get non-readers to read. What could be better than that? All it would take is for Diamond and Dark Horse to supply the demand, and a bit more effort on the part of the retailer to push other related projects.

"Oh, you like 300? You should check out Ronin. I hear they're working on a movie adaptation." Or even, "Yeah, 300 is really good, but personally, I prefer his work on Daredevil. It's got some amazing actions scenes and it's way better than that Ben Affleck movie they made."

These are the kinds of conversations I used to hear the stock boys at my old local comic shop in NJ giving to young kids whose interest in comics was peaked by movies and television. This store in particular was an amazing example of the direct market. A literal mom pop business, that had lasted three generations and as many locations, in a topsy turvey niche market. They were quick to let you know that this store was a manifestation of their family, but were just as quick to go out of their way to make you feel like you were family too.

Not content to simply rely solely on Diamond (I was under the impression that the store made most of its money from loyal customers and collectors who pillaged the store's networking resources to attain more rare material that was not on display), this store went and got a large Hellboy movie poster from a friend who worked at a movie theater to display prominently in their window, before the movie even came out in theaters. When the movie came out, they moved tons of Hellboy material, from books to statues to clothing. It was pretty impressive.

They remembered your face, and addressed many of their customers on a first name basis. Aside from asking what comics you needed, and suggesting what comics you might like, they also talked to people about sports statistics, what was going on with Jersey's Union laws (a lot of the customers were either Union Men themselves, or had family who were), and Thanksgiving plans. Like I said. If you went into that store with any regularity, you were treated as part of the family. When I was working at Sam Goody during the holiday season, I even recommended that a young father take his son there to get his Yu-Gi-Oh! card fix instead of in our store.

And this is what I have to say to retailers: I sympathize with your plight. I really do. The direct market has served me well over the years, but recognize that you're business model is becoming quickly obsolete, and it's up to you, as individuals to go that extra mile and provide a service that customers can't get elsewhere. It's not enough to stock the books that they can't get elsewhere, because that's no longer true. Make your customers, and especially your potential customers, feel that if they want to buy comics, there is no place they'd rather be to do that than in your store.

Swipe or Coincidence?

2007-03-11T17:27:00.001-05:00

Frank Kozik's Necromorth

Lobo

Swipe or coincidence?

Story Arcs in One Sitting (#1): Brad Meltzer's Justice League of America

2007-03-10T01:30:00.001-05:00

So one of my favorite things to do is grab all of my floppies for a particular series and read the entire story arc in one sitting (often times books "written for the trade" are much more satisfying in this fashion, as opposed to the month-to-month reading originally given to them). So last night, I was in kind of a funk and decided to do this with the recently concluded first arc of Brad Meltzer's new Justice League of America series.

SPOILER WARNING

Issue #0 is probably the best issue of the entire arc (if you choose to include it, since the scenes, throughout the arc, involving the Trinity - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman - picks up directly from the final scene of this issue). The reason I enjoy it so much is probably due to the fact that I am secretly a huge fanboy who loves referential continuity. Plus, the artists used for the different scenes in this issue are among some of my favorites - J.H. Williams III, Tony Harris, Rags Morales - and those whose work I have mixed feelings about have submitted some of their most engaging work, even though I could seriously do without the Mike Turner cover (pictured left) and the Ed Benes pages. Eric Wright's flashback panels are some of my favorite in the entire issue, and some of the best work I've seen from him (what can I say - I like it when square jaws look like actual squares). And even Jim Lee's work on this book is far less offensive to me than usual.

The issue for me is that this is as good as the series gets for the next six issues. When I first read issue #0, it filled me with such hope for the series, but was sorely disappointed with the rest of the story.

Aside from my problems with most of Ed Benes' work on this series (he seems to come from the Jim Lee school of "every panel works as a splash page" cartooning) the writing just generally falls short of my expectations, given Meltzer's run on Green Arrow and Identity Crisis (say what you will about IdC - I still stand by the fact that the writing is pretty damn solid). Part of the problem is that Meltzer decides to recycle some of the narrative tricks that he used in Identity Crisis, but to a less effective degree. I like the story being primarily told through the perspective of Red Tornado and Arsenal in the final issue, but I find issue with some of the indulgent monologue writing Meltzer uses. It worked in Identity Crisis because it was such a deeply personal story for all the characters involved, but with in the context of the DCU's big leagues, it seems almost trite.

And that's another issue I have with the book. The impact of the threat that the League is dealing with seems misplaced. I mean Solomon Grundy? Jack Knight was able to take down every Grundy ever created with a conversation about Woody Allen movies. Just because he came back "smart" doesn't mean that he's become any more of a threat than before. It just means that he likes to talk like a typical super villain now. And he likes to talk a lot.

The inclusion of Amazo and Starro, as perfunctory as it was, just came off as a fan service. Sure it ties in nicely with some of the early Justice League stories, which I know Meltzer tried to channel in some aspects, but they act more as cameos than as plot points. I mean why have a Starro be the means of mind control if you're just going to hollow it out and stuff it full of electronics? Why not just build a case for the electronics?

Another issue I have is the scope of the book. I appreciate that Meltzer decided to centralize the conflict to a single villain, but something about the actual threat seems lacking in many ways. Grundy wants to live forever. So what? He stole Red Tornado's android shell. So what? It all makes the intimacy and the personal nature of the story seem contrived in many ways. When Grant Morrison relaunched the League, he had the League facing off against some really massive threats, like alien invasions and such. You're talking about the most powerful super hero team in the entire universe, and you're going to have them fight a single villain? Even when Gardner Fox had the League face off against single villains like Amazo or Starro, it seemed like the threat was really threatening. It was clear that the whole world was at stake. With the Grundy conflict, the reason for the League to be teaming up and fighting seems more like a cheap vendetta.

All of that being said, the book has its moments. For the most part it's a really fun read if you can suspend your cynicism or disbelief. Some times the intimate nature of the narrative works, especially in the case of Red Tornado. The scene in which Kathy describes reading the crossword clues to Red Tornado is particularly moving, but everytime Ed Benes draws her crying, the illustration reads less like sorrow and more like she had just been humiliated by performing some weird sexual act. Even the opening scenes with Hal Jordan and Roy are satisfying because it remains contained within the context of their relationship, which the reader is dully informed of in a tasteful manner.

I also enjoyed picking up on some the things I missed during my initial reading of each issue. Like Hal's hesitance in referring Roy by his codename (Arsenal), to the point that he refers to him as "Red Arrow" simply because he started pronouncing an "R" sound and caught himself.

I also appreciate the contained nature of each issue. It reads really well as single issues, even though they are all part of a larger plot. But this can sometimes lead to problems with Meltzer. It almost seems as if he's torn between presenting each issue as singular entity or as part of a larger story with a beginning, middle, and end. I would even go so far as saying that the individual issues read better separated over a period of time than as a single story lumped together.

One of the other good things, and perhaps my favorite thing, about the single issue nature of story is that Meltzer does a really good job of creating enough anticipation to make you pick up and read the next issue without leaving you impatient to read the next chapter of the story. This is a tricky thing to do, especially with a lot of newer comics. The cliff hanger is a very delicate thing to create, and I think that Meltzer's use of the device in this book is much more tactful than his Identity Crisis books. You have to leave the reader wanting more so that they buy the next issue, but you can't leave them feeling unsatisfied either. In this regard Meltzer has done a fantastic job.

Overall, it's not a bad book. It's pretty classic super hero action fair, even if it feels weak in certain parts. It probably reads worse as a collection than as a series of single issues, but it's still a lot of fun to read on a monthly basis.

If you have any interest in the Justice League, even mildly so, and feel comfortable sparing the cover price, it's definitely a worthwhile read. Of course you could always download it to read, and save yourself the trouble.